“The betrayal of a belief is not the same thing as ceasing to believe.”

— James Baldwin, "Stranger in the Village," Harper's Magazine, 1953

About James Baldwin

1924 – 1987

American novelist and essayist, author of "Notes of a Native Son".

“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

“This is the only real concern of the artist, to recreate out of the disorder of life that order which is art.”

“Everything depends on how relentlessly one forces from this experience the last drop, sweet or bitter, it can possibly give.”

“Let whatever appears to be the best be to you an inviolable law.”

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

“All that glisters is not gold.”

“Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.”

“And one man in his time plays many parts.”

“Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice.”