James Baldwin Quotes

Advocating the expansion of the powers of the state is treason to mankind

To be governed ... is to be watched, inspected, directed, indoctrinated, numbered, estimated, regulated, commanded, controlled, law-driven, preached at, spied upon, censured, checked, valued, enrolled - by creatures who have neither the right, nor the wisdom, nor the virtue to do so.

The government continues to erode our freedom.

Reduced to its lowest terms, the great struggle which now rocks the whole earth more and more takes on the character of a struggle of the individual versus the state.

A State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes—will find that with small men, no great thing can really be accomplished.

With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor ... Each of the things is, by the respective party, called by two different and incompatible names—liberty and tyranny.

Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil.

The freedom of individuals from compulsion or coercion never was, and is not now, the normal state of human affairs. The normal state for the ordinary person is tyranny, arbitrary control and abuse mainly by their own government.

A government is the most dangerous threat to man

Whoever says State necessarily says domination, and, consequently, slavery; a State without slavery, open or concealed, is inconceivable: that is why we are enemies of the State.

The only conception of freedom I can have is that of the prisoner or the individual in the midst of the State. The only one I know is freedom of thought and action.

Government is the natural enemy of freedom.

Governments, whatever their pretensions otherwise, try to preserve themselves by holding the individual down ... Government itself, indeed, may be reasonably defined as a conspiracy against him. Its one permanent aim, whatever its form, is to hobble him sufficiently to maintain itself.

Throughout history, government has proved to be the chief instrument for thwarting man's liberty.

But on the other hand government takes away a certain amount of liberty and in some countries it takes away all of liberty. And it will, everywhere, if people who fight government do not fight government any longer.

The ancients understood the regulation of power better than the regulation of liberty.

The State acquires power... and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of giving up any of it. The State never abdicates.

The State is the altar of political freedom and, like the religious altar, it is maintained for the purpose of human sacrifice.

A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny.

A jealous lover of human liberty, deeming it the absolute condition of all that we admire and respect in humanity, I reverse the phrase of Voltaire, and say that, if God really existed, it would be necessary to abolish him.

No man may make another free.

The desire for liberty has also made itself felt as struggle against domestic tyranny or arbitrary rule.

Freedom of conscience entails more dangers than authority and despotism.

Where the state begins, individual liberty ceases, and vice versa.

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.