Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have.

About James Baldwin

James Arthur Baldwin (né Jones; August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American writer and civil rights activist who garnered acclaim for his essays, novels, plays, and poems. His 1953 novel Go Tell It on the Mountain has been ranked by Time magazine as one of the top...

More quotations from James Baldwin

You think your pains and heartbreaks are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who have ever been alive.

—James Baldwin

American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it.

—James Baldwin

I'm optimistic about the future, but not about the future of this civilization. I'm optimistic about the civilization which will replace this one.

—James Baldwin

optimism future civilization

I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself.

—James Baldwin

self-knowledge travel Europe

The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side.

—James Baldwin

knowledge work ugliness commerce

More quotations tagged with “blood”

Every living thing (and perhaps many a dead one as well) pays heed to that call. To the deer it is a reminder of the way of all flesh, to the pine a forecast of midnight scuffles and of blood upon the snow, to the coyote a promise of gleanings to come, to the cowman a threat of red ink at the bank, to the hunter a challenge of fang against bullet. Yet behind these obvious and immediate hopes and fears there lies a deeper meaning, known only to the mountain itself. Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf.

—Aldo Leopold

meaning blood calling

Ed felt faint. Milk shake, as it turned out, was much less handy in your veins then, say, oxygen.

—Francine Pascal in Sam

milkshakes blood illness oxygen

They told me that her blood was too thick for her heart to pump, and I wondered how it was that someone stayed alive so long after nothing's left. I had seen bugs crushed and gone so quickly. I couldn't decide if life was fragile or tenacious beyond belief.

—Patricia Bralley

life health death blood fragility

Love is a sacred reserve of energy; it is like the blood of spiritual evolution.

—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

spirituality love energy blood

History

1 Jan 2016 Added
26 Oct 2026 Wording changed

Previous wording

Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have.