Malcolm X Quotations
- "When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire . . . or preserve his freedom."
-- Malcolm X - "Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn't know what you know today."
-- Malcolm X - "My Alma mater was books, a good library... I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity."
-- Malcolm X - "Stumbling is not falling."
-- Malcolm X - "There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time."
-- Malcolm X - "You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."
-- Malcolm X - "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."
-- Malcolm X - "Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it."
-- Malcolm X - "I am not educated nor am I an expert in any particular field. But I am sincere and my sincerity is my credentials."
-- Malcolm X - "The only way we'll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed people in the world. We are blood brothers to the people of Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba -- yes Cuba too."
-- Malcolm X - "I believe in a religion that believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won't let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion."
-- Malcolm X - "You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker."
-- Malcolm X - "Nonviolence is fine as long as it works."
-- Malcolm X - "You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it."
-- Malcolm X - "Power never takes a step back except in the face of more power."
-- Malcolm X - "A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything."
-- Malcolm X - "We declare our right on this earth to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."
-- Malcolm X - "We do not condemn the preachers as an individual but we condemn what they teach. We urge that the preachers teach the truth, to teach our people the one important guiding rule of conduct -- unity of purpose."
-- Malcolm X - "In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure."
-- Malcolm X - "We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us."
-- Malcolm X - "We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us."
-- Malcolm X - "Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks."
-- Malcolm X - "A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself."
-- Malcolm X - "I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they'll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action."
-- Malcolm X - "If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary."
-- Malcolm X - "I feel like a man who has been asleep somewhat and under someone else's control. I feel that what I'm thinking and saying is now for myself. Before it was for and by the guidance of Elijah Muhammad. Now I think with my own mind, sir!"
-- Malcolm X - "The thing that you have to understand about those of us in the Black Muslim movement was that all of us believed 100 percent in the divinity of Elijah Muhammad. We believed in him. We actually believed that God, in Detroit by the way, that God had taught him and all of that. I always believed that he believed in himself. And I was shocked when I found out that he himself didn't believe it."
-- Malcolm X - "I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation."
-- Malcolm X - "It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That's the only thing that can save this country."
-- Malcolm X - February 19, 1965 (2 days before he was murdered by Nation of Islam followers) - "Without education, you're not going anywhere in this world."
-- Malcolm X - "...I shall never rest until I have undone the harm I did to so many well-meaning, innocent Negroes who through my own evangelistic zeal now believe in him even more fanatically and more blindly than I did."
-- Malcolm X - "You don't have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being."
-- Malcolm X - "Dr. King wants the same thing I want. Freedom."
-- Malcolm X - "I want Dr. King to know that I didn't come to Selma to make his job difficult. I really did come thinking I could make it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they will be more willing to hear Dr. King."
-- Malcolm X - "I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation, every form of discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color."
-- Malcolm X - "I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment."
-- Malcolm X (Speech, Dec. 12 1964, New York City) - "I don't see an American dream, I see an American nightmare."
-- Malcolm X - "Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about change."
-- Malcolm X - "If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing."
-- Malcolm X - "It doesn't mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time, I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don't call it violence when it's self-defense, I call it intelligence."
-- Malcolm X - "I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against."
-- Malcolm X - "The future belongs to those who prepare for it today."
-- Malcolm X - "People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book."
-- Malcolm X
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