“We thought the corner was cool, but more than that we deeply believed that we could do no better, that this tiny parcel was all we deserved in this world of sin.”

—  Ta-Nehisi Coates

Source: The Beautiful Struggle: A Memoir (2008), p. 192.
Context: I built not by parental edict, not under threat, but because of my own native yearning. This was a giant step toward seeing more. Across the country our elders were battling the shades that shrank our minds and abbreviated our world. We thought the corner was cool, but more than that we deeply believed that we could do no better, that this tiny parcel was all we deserved in this world of sin.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "We thought the corner was cool, but more than that we deeply believed that we could do no better, that this tiny parcel…" by Ta-Nehisi Coates?
Ta-Nehisi Coates photo
Ta-Nehisi Coates 36
writer, journalist, and educator 1975

Related quotes

Emil M. Cioran photo

“I don't understand why we must do things in this world, why we must have friends and aspirations, hopes and dreams. Wouldn't it be better to retreat to a faraway corner of the world, where all its noise and complications would be heard no more? Then we could renounce culture and ambitions; we would lose everything and gain nothing; for what is there to be gained from this world?”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

On the Heights of Despair (1934)

Ernest Hemingway photo

“This looking and not seeing things was a great sin, I thought, and one that was easy to fall into. It was always the beginning of something bad and I thought that we did not deserve to live in the world if we did not see it.”

Ernest Hemingway book True at First Light

Source: True at First Light (1999), Ch. 9

Ben Carson photo

“We are capable of doing even better things than we believe we are, if we challenge each other to do it.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 215

Michael Moore photo

“We are the richest country in the world. We spend more on health care than any other country. Yet we have the worst health care in the Western world. Come on. We can do better than this.”

Michael Moore (1954) American filmmaker, author, social critic, and liberal activist

As quoted in Sicko is Socko, Richard, Corliss, Time, 19 May 2007 http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1623337,00.html,
2007

J. M. E. McTaggart photo

“On the determinist hypothesis an omnipotent God could have prevented all sin by creating us with better natures and in more favourable surroundings. … Hence we should not be responsible for our sins to God.”

J. M. E. McTaggart (1866–1925) British philosopher

Some Dogmas of Religion (1906), p. 165.

C. Rajagopalachari photo

“If we believe that God is everywhere… why should we not believe He is in objects to which so much concentrated devotion is attached? Christians believe in the doctrine of original sin. Hindus believe in the doctrine of acquired sin. But all of us believe that God, by whatever name we call Him, is in the world.”

C. Rajagopalachari (1878–1972) Political leader

Rajagopalachari, quoted in: Monica Felton (1962) Rajaji, p. 57

Susan Sontag photo

“I believe that we think much more with the instruments provided by our culture than we do with our bodies, and hence the much greater diversity of thought in the world. Thinking is a form of feeling; feeling is a form of thinking.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

"Susan Sontag: The Rolling Stone Interview" with Jonathan Cott (1978; published 4 October 1979)
Context: One of my oldest crusades is against the distinction between thought and feeling... which is really the basis of all anti-intellectual views: the heart and the head, thinking and feeling, fantasy and judgment. We have more or less the same bodies, but very different kinds of thoughts. I believe that we think much more with the instruments provided by our culture than we do with our bodies, and hence the much greater diversity of thought in the world. Thinking is a form of feeling; feeling is a form of thinking.

Ini Edo photo

“We need to teach, preach, impact love and compassion into the world. Too much bitterness, No love for one another. If only we could be more compassionate towards one another, more kind and thoughtful ,this world be probably be a better place”

Ini Edo (1982) Nollywood actress

Source: https://quotes.ng/mobile/author.php?title=ini-edo&id=1873

Rudolf Steiner photo

“If we do not believe within ourselves this deeply rooted feeling that there is something higher than ourselves, we shall never find the strength to evolve into something higher.”

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) Austrian esotericist
Gwendolyn Brooks photo

“We real cool. We
Left school. We
Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We
Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We
Jazz June. We
Die soon.”

Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000) American writer

"We ReaI CooI" , The Bean Eaters (1960)
The "We"—you're supposed to stop after the "We" and think about their validity, and of course there's no way for you to tell whether it should be said softly or not, I suppose, but I say it rather softly because I want to represent their basic uncertainty, which they don't bother to question every day, of course.
"An Interview with Gwendolyn Brooks", Contemporary Literature 11:1 (Winter 1970)
The WEs in "We Real Cool" are tiny, wispy, weakly argumentative "Kilroy-is-here" announcements. The boys have no accented sense of themselves, yet they are aware of a semi-defined personal importance. Say the "We" softly.
Report from Part One (1972)
Source: Selected Poems

Related topics