It is a very rare man who does not victimize the helpless.

To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.

Negro servants have been smuggling odds and ends out of white homes for generations, and white people have been delighted to have them do it, because it has assuaged a dim guilt and testified to the intrinsic superiority of white people.

It is dangerous to be an American Negro male. America has never wanted its Negroes to be men, and does not, generally, treat them as men. It treats them as mascots, pets, or things.

The past is what makes the present coherent, and the past will remain horrible for exactly as long as we refuse to assess it honestly.

The moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.

It is a very grave matter to be forced to imitate a people for whom you know-which is the price of your performance and survival-you do not exist. It is hard to imitate a people whose existence appears, mainly, to be made tolerable by their bottomless gratitude that they are not, thank heaven, you.