James Baldwin Quotes

He knew that conscience was chiefly fear of society or fear of oneself.

I've always been at war with myself, for right or wrong.

Human beings are made up of many different values, and sometimes those values are in tension with each other.

What do you do when you get a draft notice and you think a war is wrong? And I struggled with that for months prior to my being inducted into the army, and I'm still struggling with it, 40 years later.

Everybody is a hypocrite. You can't live on this planet without being a hypocrite.

If this isn’t good versus evil, what is?

Everybody is grappling with their own moral compass, and that needle, like any needle, can't just stick. It's always floating a little bit, and depending on where you're standing, it's hard to read.

I wanted to write a book about people who have the best intentions and think - really, truly think - that they're doing the right thing. And then they realize that when those ideals come knocking at their windowsill, a lot of times they will suddenly disavow those ideals.

Under what circumstances is it moral for a group to do that which is not moral for a member of that group to do alone?

The choice before human beings, is not, as a rule , between good and evil but between two evils. You can let the Nazis rule the world : that is evil; or you can overthrow them by war , which is also evil. There is no other choice before you, and whichever you choose you will not come out with clean hands.

For a good man fame is always a problem.

For an individual as well as for a society, there is a gulf between merely living and living worthily.

There are two kinds of people in this world, son. Those who save lives, and those who take lives." "And what of those who protect and defend? Those who save lives by taking lives?" "That's like trying to stop a storm by blowing harder. Ridiculous. You can't protect by killing.

Don't go growing a conscience on me," I said. "I've been down that road. It doesn't lead you to anything good.

In trying to avoid one sin I've committed another.

Is it not a terrible thing to be forced by society to do things which all of us as individuals regard as abominable crimes?

Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom.

She knew full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it.

I did not believe in the war. I thought it was wrong to go into any war. And I got to the war, and saw the Germans, and I changed my mind. I decided we were right going into World War II.

In a word, I was too cowardly to do what I knew to be right, as I had been too cowardly to avoid doing what I knew to be wrong.

In this world, either you're virtuous or you enjoy yourself. Not both, lady, not both.

Unfortunately sometimes one can't do what one thinks is right without making someone else unhappy.

It is sometimes rational to do what is wrong, and sometimes irrational to do what is right

If I were over full of pity for the cow, I should sacrifice my life to save her but not take my brother's.

Why am I always at war with myself? Why have I told, as if upon compulsion, what I knew all along I ought to have withheld? Why am I making a friend of this woman beside me, in spite of the whispers against her that I hear in my heart?