You know, it's not the world that was my oppressor, because what the world does to you, if the world does it to you long enough and effectively enough, you begin to do to yourself.
James A. BaldwinThere are few things under heaven more unnerving than the silent, accumulating contempt and hatred of a people.
James A. BaldwinAllegiance, after all, has to work two ways; and one can grow weary of an allegiance which is not reciprocal.
James A. BaldwinWe take our shape, it is true, within and against that cage of reality bequeathed us at our birth; and yet it is precisely through our dependence on this reality that we are most endlessly betrayed.
James A. Baldwin