“I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate.”

The Ballot or the Bullet (1964), Speech in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964)
Context: I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American. Why, if birth made you American, you wouldn't need any legislation; you wouldn't need any amendments to the Constitution; you wouldn't be faced with civil-rights filibustering in Washington, D. C., right now.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Sept. 27, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "I'm not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the…" by Malcolm X?

Malcolm X photo

Malcolm X180

American human rights activist 1925–1965

Related quotes

“[having been recognized by a woman in a diner]
She sits down across the table from me, and didn't say "Hi, hello, my name is…." She just said "this is what I'm going to tell my husband when he gets home from work today. I'm going to tell him that I had lunch with Jeff Foxworthy."”

Bill Engvall (1957) American comedian and actor

[looks up] Really God? Really?
Aged and Confused (2009)

“I am sitting in the morning
at the diner on the corner”

Suzanne Vega (1959) American singer

Tom's Diner
Solitude Standing (1987)
Context: I am sitting in the morning
at the diner on the corner
I am waiting at the counter
for the man to pour the coffee
and he fills it only halfway
and before I even argue
he is looking out the window
at somebody coming in.

“I wish you all full plates, glasses, tables, and hearts.”

Morgan Murphy (food critic) (1972) Southern writer

Source: <i>Bourbon & Bacon</i> (2014), p. 288

“There's a safety in thinking in a diner. You can have your coffee or your milkshake, and you can go off into strange dark areas, and always come back to the safety of the diner.”

David Lynch (1946) American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor

“Because when I looked at you across that table at the diner, no one else existed. And whether or not anything happens between you and me, it took meeting you to show me what I was missing.”

Jessica Bird book Covet

Source: Covet

“It doesn't matter what people call you unless they call you pigeon pie and eat you up.”

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer

Part 2, Chapter 3
Brideshead Revisited (1945)
Source: Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder

“Practice does not mean that whatever you do, even lying down, is zazen. When the restrictions you have do not limit you, this is what we mean by practice….
When you sit, you will sit. When you eat, you will eat…. If you say,”It doesn’t matter,” it means that you are making some excuse to do something in your own way with your small mind. It means that you are to some particular thing or way. That is not what we mean when we say, “Just to sit is enough,” or “Whatever you do is zazen.””

Shunryu Suzuki book Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind

Of course, everything you do is zazen, but if so, there is no need to say it.
Source: Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (1973), p. 41

“To sit back hoping that someday, someway, someone will make things right is to go on feeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat you last - but eat you he will.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

“Everybody eats something
But you won't eat me
You won't get me on your plate
Or have me over for tea
Everybody lives somewhere
Mud hut or igloo
But what I got is the hottest spot
And it's away from you”

Andy Partridge (1953) British musician

"Life is Good in the Greenhouse".
Go 2 (1978)

“One night at the diner over eggs,
Over easy she showed me the length of her legs,
But that gold plated cross on her neck, it was real
And you don't get that kind of money from pushing a meal.”

Ryan Adams (1974) American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter

Carolina Rain
29 (2005)

Related topics