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No one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time. ↗

— James A. Baldwin

#each #first #first time #happen #happening

Love is the poetry of the senses. ↗

— Honore de Balzac

#love is #poetry #senses

The power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world's definitions. ↗

— James A. Baldwin

#black #definitions #man #power #refuses

When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn't a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking. ↗

— James A. Baldwin

#action #asks #balance #himself #insane

Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. ↗

— James A. Baldwin

#day #down #each #earth #go

The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side. ↗

— James A. Baldwin

#calling #intimate #intimate knowledge #knowledge #pays

There are few things more dreadful than dealing with a man who knows he is going under, in his own eyes, and in the eyes of others. Nothing can help that man. What is left of that man flees from what is left of human attention. ↗

— James A. Baldwin

#dealing #dreadful #eyes #few #few things

I want to be an honest man and a good writer. ↗

— James A. Baldwin

#good writer #honest #honest man #i #man

Pessimists are the people who have no hope for themselves or for others. Pessimists are also people who think the human race is beneath their notice, that they're better than other human beings. ↗

— James A. Baldwin

#beings #beneath #better #hope #human

If you're treated a certain way you become a certain kind of person. If certain things are described to you as being real they're real for you whether they're real or not. ↗

— James Baldwin

#being #being real #certain #certain things #certain way