James Baldwin

The first such truth is that the mind is not the possession of man alone.

that we are able to get real knowledge about the mind.

this is the fact that minds vary much in different individuals, or classes of individuals

mental diseases teach us much about the normal mind.

ame out to hit him as the doors opened almost made him cry for fair and it made his empty stomach growl again.

It made him remember days and nights, days and nights, when he had been inside, on the stand or in the crowd, sharp, beloved, making it with any chick he wanted, maki

‘Well’ – he looked down – ‘I want the chick to love me. I want to make her love me. I want to be loved.’

He remembered, suddenly, his days in boot camp in the South and felt again the shoe of a white officer against his mouth.

Well, that’s what’s the matter with most people,’ Leona insisted, plaintively, ‘ain’t got nobody to be with. That’s what makes them so evil. I’m telling you, boy, I know.’

But don’t lose heart, dear ones – don’t lose heart. Don’t let it make you bitter. Try to understand. Try to understand. The world’s already bitter enough, we got to try to be better than the world.’

The sea of memory washed over him, again and again, and each time it receded another humiliated Eric was left writhing on the sands. How hard it was to be despised! How impossible not to despise oneself!