Quotes by James A. Baldwin

About James A. Baldwin:

James A. "Jim" Baldwin was an American football player, track athlete, coach of football, basketball, and baseball, and college athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Rhode Island State College—now the University of Rhode Island, the University of Maine, Trinity College in Durham, North Carolina—now Duke University, Lehigh University, and Wake Forest University, compiling a career college football record of 41–32–14. Baldwin was also the head basketball coach at the same five schools, amassing a career college basketball mark of 85–66. In addition he served as the head baseball coach at Rhode Island State and at Lehigh, tallying a career college baseball record of 32–25–1. From 1916 to 1920, Baldwin was the athletic director at Rhode Island while he coached three sports.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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.

James A. Baldwin

The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.

James A. Baldwin

The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did - which was to hide.

James A. Baldwin

People can cry much easier than they can change.

James A. Baldwin

Pessimists are the people who have no hope for themselves or for others. Pessimists are also people who think the human race is beneath their notice, that they're better than other human beings.

James A. Baldwin

People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.

James A. Baldwin

I am what time, circumstance, history, have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more than that. So are we all.

James A. Baldwin

American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.

James A. Baldwin

Education is indoctrination if you're white - subjugation if you're black.

James A. Baldwin

The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.

James A. Baldwin

Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.

James A. Baldwin

I want to be an honest man and a good writer.

James A. Baldwin

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

James A. Baldwin

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.

James A. Baldwin

The future is like heaven, everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there now.

James A. Baldwin

The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.

James A. Baldwin

Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time.

James A. Baldwin

To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the making of bread.

James A. Baldwin

Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.

James A. Baldwin

I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.

James A. Baldwin

Author Bio

  • NameJames A. Baldwin
  • Description(1886-1964) American sportsperson
  • AliasesJim Baldwin
  • BornMay 26, 1886
  • DiedAugust 2, 1964
  • ProfessionBasketball Coach