2 August: James Arthur Baldwin

James Arthur Baldwin was an African-American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. He was born August 2 1924.

1. Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
2. I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.
3. Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.
4. The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.
5. Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
6. People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.
7. People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned.
8. I've always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative.
9. Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.
10. There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now.