“how can one respect, let alone adopt, the values of a people who do not, on any level whatever, live the way they say they do, or the way they say they should?”

—  James Baldwin , book The Fire Next Time

Source: The Fire Next Time

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "how can one respect, let alone adopt, the values of a people who do not, on any level whatever, live the way they say t…" by James Baldwin?
James Baldwin photo
James Baldwin 163
(1924-1987) writer from the United States 1924–1987

Related quotes

Dhani Harrison photo

“But no matter what they say,
You can make it all right
You can do it alone now
Do it your way
Yeah”

Dhani Harrison (1978) English musician

Yomp
Lyrics, You Are Here (2008)

Zhiar Ali photo

“The rules of your religion do not apply to people who do not believe in it so let people live the way they want.”

Zhiar Ali (1999) Kurdish human rights activist and artist

Ali on freedom to choose one's religion and lifestyle, via Twitter.

Voltairine de Cleyre photo

“Not for you to say "in this way shall the race love." Let the race alone.
Will there not be atrocious crimes? Certainly. He is a fool who says there will not be.”

Voltairine de Cleyre (1866–1912) American anarchist writer and feminist

Sex Slavery (1890)
Context: Now for the remedy. It is in one word, the only word that ever brought equity anywhere — LIBERTY! Centuries upon centuries of liberty is the only thing that will cause the disintegration and decay of these pestiferous ideas. Liberty was all that calmed the bloodwaves of religious persecution! You cannot cure serfhood by any other substitution. Not for you to say "in this way shall the race love." Let the race alone.
Will there not be atrocious crimes? Certainly. He is a fool who says there will not be. But you can't stop them by committing the arch-crime and setting a block between the spokes of Progress-wheels. You will never get right until you start right.
As for the final outcome, it matters not one iota. I have my ideal, and it is very pure, and very sacred to me. But yours, equally sacred, may be different and we may both be wrong. But certain am I that with free contract, that form of sexual association will survive which is best adapted to time and place, thus producing the highest evolution of the type. Whether that shall be monogamy, variety, or promiscuity matters naught to us; it is the business of the future, to which we dare not dictate.

“Let people alone. Let them find their way. Let them find their level and you may sometimes be delighted and astonished at the extraordinary high level to which they'll rise if they're let alone.”

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

"Gzowski on FM".
Conversations with Robertson Davies (1989)

Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“Above all things, one should maintain his self-respect, and there is but one way to do that, and that is to live in accordance with your highest ideal.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

The trial of Charles B. Reynolds for blasphemy (1887)
Context: There is a constitution higher than any statute. There is a law higher than any constitution. It is the law of the human conscience, and no man who is a man will defile and pollute his conscience at the bidding of any legislature. Above all things, one should maintain his self-respect, and there is but one way to do that, and that is to live in accordance with your highest ideal.

Arthur Helps photo

“The more truth you can get into any business, the better. Let the other side know the defects of yours, let them know how you are to be satisfied, let there be as little to be found as possible (I should say nothing), and if your business be an honest one, it will be best tended in this way.”

Arthur Helps (1813–1875) British writer

‘Truth’, Chapter I.
Friends in Council (First Series), (1847),

Barack Obama photo

“And this is probably a good place for me to end by just saying that the issue of climate change is a perfect example of why young people have to lead. Because old people, they've created a mess, and then they'll be gone. And then you -- (applause) -- you're the ones who have to deal with it. And also what happens is old people get set in their ways. So the older you get, the more likely you are to say, that's how it's always been so that's how I'm going to keep on doing it -- even if there's a better way to do things. Young people, they're asking, well, why do I have to do it that way? Let's try it this way. And that kind of willingness to accept challenges and try things in a new way, to not be stuck in the past, or to look towards the future, that's what all of you represent.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2014, Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative Town Hall Speech (November 2014)

Pythagoras photo

“Let no one persuade you by word or deed to do or say whatever is not best for you.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

As quoted in Divine Harmony: The Life and Teachings of Pythagoras by John Strohmeier and Peter Westbrook. (1999)
The Golden Verses
Context: Many words befall men, mean and noble alike; do not be astonished by them, nor allow yourself to be constrained.
If a lie is told, bear with it gently.
But whatever I tell you, let it be done completely.
Let no one persuade you by word or deed to do or say whatever is not best for you.

Hunter S. Thompson photo

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Source: The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

Siegfried Sassoon photo

“Let no one ever, from henceforth say one word in any way countenancing war.”

Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967) English poet, diarist and memoirist

As quoted by Robert Nichols in his introduction to The Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918)
Context: Let no one ever, from henceforth say one word in any way countenancing war. It is dangerous even to speak of how here and there the individual may gain some hardship of soul by it. For war is hell, and those who institute it are criminals. Were there even anything to say for it, it should not be said; for its spiritual disasters far outweigh any of its advantages.

Related topics