To educate the masses politically does not mean, cannot mean, making a political speech. What it means is to try, relentlessly and passionately, to teach the masses that everything depends on them; that if we stagnate it is their responsibility, and that if we go forward it is due to them too, that there is no such thing as a demiurge, that there is no famous man who will take the responsibility for everything, but that the demiurge is the people themselves and the magic hands are finally only the hands of the people.

For the black man there is only one destiny. And it is white.

The native must realize that colonialism never gives anything away for nothing.

He who is reluctant to recognize me opposes me.

I ascribe a basic importance to the phenomenon of language. To speak means to be in a position to use a certain syntax, to grasp the morphology of this or that language, but it means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of a civilization.

Get used to me, I am not getting used to anyone.

One avoids Creolisms. Some families completely forbid Creole and mothers ridicule their children for speaking it.