Eldridge Cleaver Quotes

Little islands are all large prisons: one cannot look at the sea without wishing for the wings of a swallow.

For without you, I swear, the town Has become like a prison to me. Distraction and the mountain And the desert, all I desire.

There is one kind of prison where the man is behind bars, and everything that he desires is outside; and there is another kind where the things are behind the bars, and the man is outside.

Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside equally desperate to get out.

I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse, perhaps, to be locked in.

There is not a man among them who would not leave if they believed they could make their escape … Liberty is sweet.

I'm like a caged animal sometimes. Let me yearn to breathe free.

We cannot do without it, and yet we disgrace and vilify the same. It may be compared to a cage, the birds without despair to get in, and those within despair to get out.

There's no way out of here.

Caged birds accept each other, but flight is what they long for.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill, of things unknown, but longed for still, and his tune is heard on the distant hill, for the caged bird sings of freedom.

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,- When he beats his bars and would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core, But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings- I know why the caged bird sings!

His pacing stopped. The mattress sighed as he sat on the edge. seconds ticked by before he spoke so softly she could barely hear. "Sometimes I want to leave this town so bad I can taste it.

No bird in a cage ever speaks. What is there to say? The sky is everywhere, churning above its head, blue and endless, calling out to it. But the caged bird can't answer anything except 'I cannot'.

He who is conceived in a cage yearns for the cage.

They weren't crazy. They were tired of being locked up. Even I could see that.

There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.

It's awfully easy to be in love in jail.

We are ever striving after what is forbidden, and coveting what is denied us.

Having been let out of the barn once, I know I wouldn't be happy if I were home all the time.

I have watched patients stand and gaze longingly toward the city they in all likelihood will never enter again. It means liberty and life; it seems so near, and yet heaven is not further from hell.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.

Probably the only place where a man can feel really secure is in a maximum security prison, except for the imminent threat of release.

You'll never know how sweet freedom can be unless you've lost it for eight and a half years.