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Heavenly witnesses are a tricky lot, to be used by whoever is closest to Heaven at the time. And legend and theology, which are designed to sanctify our fears, crimes, and aspirations, also reveal them for what they are.

James A. Baldwin

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James A. Baldwin
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The hope of the world lies in what one demands, not of others, but of oneself.
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To act is to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger.
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The face of a lover is an unknown, precisely because it is invested with so much of oneself. It is a mystery, containing, like all mysteries, the possibility of torment.
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You write in order to change the world.
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I often wonder what I'd do if there weren't any books in the world.
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And love will simply have no choice but to go into battle with space and time, and furthermore, to win.
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Americans, unhappily, have the most remarkable ability to alchemize all bitter truths into an innocuous but piquant confection and to transform their moral contradictions, or public discussion of such contradictions, into a proud decoration, such as are given for heroism on the field of battle.
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Experience is a private, very largely speechless affair.
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I don't know, now, when I first looked at Hella and found her stale, found her body uninteresting, her presence grating. It seemed to happen all at once—I suppose that only means that it had been happening for a long time.
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Nobody is more dangerous than he who imagines himself pure in heart for his purity, by definition, is unassailable.
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When the South has trouble with its Negroes - when the Negroes refuse to remain in their place - it blames outside agitators and Northern interference. When the nation has trouble with the Northern Negro, it blames the Kremlin.
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There was no room in God's army for the coward heart, no crown awaiting him who put mother or father, sister or brother, sweetheart or friend above God's will. Let the church cry amen to this!
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Because I was raised in a Christian culture I never considered myself to be a totally free human being.
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You think your pains and heartbreaks are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. [and then you discover that others have suffered much more than you and your problems look good in comparison]
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We cannot discuss the state of our minorities until we first have a sense of what we are, who we are, what our goals are, and what we take life to be.
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Great art can only be created out of love.
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Experience, which destroys innocence, also leads one back to it.
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