The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an immediate knowledge of its ugly side. – James Baldwin
But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power. – James Baldwin
When the book comes out it may hurt you — but in order for me to do it, it had to hurt me first. I can only tell you about yourself as much as I can face about myself. – James Baldwin
Voyagers discover that the world can never be larger than the person that is in the world; but it is impossible to foresee this, it is impossible to be warned. – James Baldwin
The most successful career must show a waste of strength that might have removed mountains, and the most unsuccessful is not that of the man who is taken unprepared, but of him who has prepared and is never taken. On a tragedy of that kind our national morality is duly silent. – E. M. Forster