Search quotes

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
ce5cf02	What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?		Ralph Ellison
9378bcc	When I discover who I am, I'll be free.	independence self-awareness identity self-discovery	Ralph Ellison
9b9b0fc	Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.	defeat humanity life	Ralph Ellison
91feee9	The world is a possibility if only you'll discover it.		Ralph Ellison
38aebec	I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.		Ralph Ellison
b003382	I was never more hated than when I tried to be honest. Or when, even as just now I've tried to articulate exactly what I felt to be the truth. No one was satisfied	inspirational	Ralph Ellison
e747371	Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it.		Ralph Ellison
141a21d	And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own.		Ralph Ellison
394f1e0	I remember that I'm invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.		Ralph Ellison
c88d75a	Perhaps to lose a sense of where you are implies the danger of losing a sense of who you are.		Ralph Ellison
e8addc8	I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself.		Ralph Ellison
129d7b7	Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?		Ralph Ellison
238cf2c	I do not know if all cops are poets, but I know that all cops carry guns with triggers.	fiction humor rsas	Ralph Ellison
7f95f2e	I was pulled this way and that for longer than I can remember. And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself. So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally rebelled. I am an invisible man.		Ralph Ellison
3ef5111	For, like almost everyone else in our country, I started out with my share of optimism. I believed in hard work and progress and action, but now, after first being 'for' society and then 'against' it, I assign myself no rank or any limit, and such an attitude is very much against the trend of the times. But my world has become one of infinite possibilities. What a phrase - still it's a good phrase and a good view of life, and a man shouldn'..		Ralph Ellison
ab84529	I feel the need to reaffirm all of it, the whole unhappy territory and all the things loved and unloveable in it, for it is all part of me.		Ralph Ellison
bc2b27e	The blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism. As a form, the blues is an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically.		Ralph Ellison
219f9ee	Whence all this passion towards conformity anyway? Diversity is the word. Let man keep his many parts and you will have no tyrant states. Why, if they follow this conformity business, they'll end up by forcing me, an invisible man, to become white, which is not a color but the lack of one. Must I strive towards colorlessness? But seriously and without snobbery, think of what the world would lose if that should happen. America is woven of ma..		Ralph Ellison
02fdb1a	We look too much to museums. The sun coming up in the morning is enough.		Ralph Ellison
1d8eb2e	Play the game, but don't believe in it - that much you owe yourself ... Play the game, but raise the ante, my boy. Learn how it operates, learn how you operate.		Ralph Ellison
c7e85f6	Please, a definition: A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.		Ralph Ellison
69966a7	America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many.		Ralph Ellison
266c5c8	And the mind that has conceived a plan of living must never lose sight of the chaos against which that pattern was conceived. That goes for societies as well as for individuals.		Ralph Ellison
783be9b	Everywhere I've turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my own good--only /they/ were the ones who benefited. And now we start on the old sacrificial merry-go-round. At what point do we stop?		Ralph Ellison
60c2f99	They could laugh at him but they couldn't ignore him		Ralph Ellison
8657a1a	Perhaps everyone loved someone; I didn't now, I couldn't give much thought to love; in order to travel far you had to be detached, and I had the long road back to the campus before me.	travel	Ralph Ellison
bd06a91	The truth is the light and the light is the truth.		Ralph Ellison
fc258f6	I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids -- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting g..	ralph-ellison	Ralph Ellison
050422d	Man's hope can paint a purple picture, can transform a soaring vulture into a noble eagle or moaning dove.		Ralph Ellison
3b972c2	In those days it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live.		Ralph Ellison
a31534e	All it takes to get along in this here man's town is a little shit, grit, and mother-wit.		Ralph Ellison
bbfd99e	I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility. And I defend because in spite of it all, I find that I love.		Ralph Ellison
0a1e9c9	Some things are just too unjust for words, and too ambiguous for either speech or ideas.		Ralph Ellison
ea41fa8	And sometimes the difference between individual and organized indignation is the difference between criminal and political action.	protest	Ralph Ellison
0f1549b	God is love, I said, but art's the possibility of forms, and shadows are the source of identity.	identity god love	Ralph Ellison
82b6079	The clock ticked with empty urgency, as though trying to catch up with the time. In the street a siren howled.		Ralph Ellison
fc23bd7	You're very insistent, but I'm very busy.	insistent	Ralph Ellison
7217bac	Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me.		Ralph Ellison
b94a3aa	And while the ice was melting to form a flood in which I threatened to drown I awoke one afternoon to find that my first northern winter had set.		Ralph Ellison
4a1d4d1	But we are all human, I thought, wondering what I meant.		Ralph Ellison
8404dbd	If only all the contradictory voices shouting inside my head would calm down and sing a song in unison, whatever it was I wouldn't care as long as they sang without dissonance.		Ralph Ellison
bc6699e	I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer.		Ralph Ellison
788b4ef	Words of Emancipation didn't arrive until the middle of June so they called it Juneteenth. his mind went on.	slavery freedom juneteenth liberty	Ralph Ellison
6c3d38a	I could hardly get to sleep for dreaming of revenge.	revenge ralph-ellison invisible-man	Ralph Ellison

What and how much had I lost by trying to do only what was expected of me instead of what I myself had wished to do?

Ralph Ellison

9378bcc

When I discover who I am, I'll be free.

independence self-awareness identity self-discovery

Ralph Ellison

9b9b0fc

Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.

defeat humanity life

Ralph Ellison

91feee9

The world is a possibility if only you'll discover it.

Ralph Ellison

38aebec

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.

Ralph Ellison

b003382

I was never more hated than when I tried to be honest. Or when, even as just now I've tried to articulate exactly what I felt to be the truth. No one was satisfied

inspirational

Ralph Ellison

e747371

Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it.

Ralph Ellison

141a21d

And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own.

Ralph Ellison

394f1e0

I remember that I'm invisible and walk softly so as not awake the sleeping ones. Sometimes it is best not to awaken them; there are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.

Ralph Ellison

c88d75a

Perhaps to lose a sense of where you are implies the danger of losing a sense of who you are.

Ralph Ellison

e8addc8

I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: That I am nobody but myself.

Ralph Ellison

129d7b7

Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?

Ralph Ellison

238cf2c

I do not know if all cops are poets, but I know that all cops carry guns with triggers.

fiction humor rsas

Ralph Ellison

7f95f2e

I was pulled this way and that for longer than I can remember. And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself. So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally rebelled. I am an invisible man.

Ralph Ellison

3ef5111

For, like almost everyone else in our country, I started out with my share of optimism. I believed in hard work and progress and action, but now, after first being 'for' society and then 'against' it, I assign myself no rank or any limit, and such an attitude is very much against the trend of the times. But my world has become one of infinite possibilities. What a phrase - still it's a good phrase and a good view of life, and a man shouldn'..

Ralph Ellison

ab84529

I feel the need to reaffirm all of it, the whole unhappy territory and all the things loved and unloveable in it, for it is all part of me.

Ralph Ellison

bc2b27e

The blues is an impulse to keep the painful details and episodes of a brutal experience alive in one's aching consciousness, to finger its jagged grain, and to transcend it, not by the consolation of philosophy but by squeezing from it a near-tragic, near-comic lyricism. As a form, the blues is an autobiographical chronicle of personal catastrophe expressed lyrically.

Ralph Ellison

219f9ee

Whence all this passion towards conformity anyway? Diversity is the word. Let man keep his many parts and you will have no tyrant states. Why, if they follow this conformity business, they'll end up by forcing me, an invisible man, to become white, which is not a color but the lack of one. Must I strive towards colorlessness? But seriously and without snobbery, think of what the world would lose if that should happen. America is woven of ma..

Ralph Ellison

02fdb1a

We look too much to museums. The sun coming up in the morning is enough.

Ralph Ellison

1d8eb2e

Play the game, but don't believe in it - that much you owe yourself ... Play the game, but raise the ante, my boy. Learn how it operates, learn how you operate.

Ralph Ellison

c7e85f6

Please, a definition: A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.

Ralph Ellison

69966a7

America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many.

Ralph Ellison

266c5c8

And the mind that has conceived a plan of living must never lose sight of the chaos against which that pattern was conceived. That goes for societies as well as for individuals.

Ralph Ellison

783be9b

Everywhere I've turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my own good--only /they/ were the ones who benefited. And now we start on the old sacrificial merry-go-round. At what point do we stop?

Ralph Ellison

60c2f99

They could laugh at him but they couldn't ignore him

Ralph Ellison

8657a1a

Perhaps everyone loved someone; I didn't now, I couldn't give much thought to love; in order to travel far you had to be detached, and I had the long road back to the campus before me.

travel

Ralph Ellison

bd06a91

The truth is the light and the light is the truth.

Ralph Ellison

fc258f6

I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids -- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting g..

ralph-ellison

Ralph Ellison

050422d

Man's hope can paint a purple picture, can transform a soaring vulture into a noble eagle or moaning dove.

Ralph Ellison

3b972c2

In those days it was either live with music or die with noise, and we chose rather desperately to live.

Ralph Ellison

a31534e

All it takes to get along in this here man's town is a little shit, grit, and mother-wit.

Ralph Ellison

bbfd99e

I denounce because though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility. And I defend because in spite of it all, I find that I love.

Ralph Ellison

0a1e9c9

Some things are just too unjust for words, and too ambiguous for either speech or ideas.

Ralph Ellison

ea41fa8

And sometimes the difference between individual and organized indignation is the difference between criminal and political action.

protest

Ralph Ellison

0f1549b

God is love, I said, but art's the possibility of forms, and shadows are the source of identity.

identity god love

Ralph Ellison

82b6079

The clock ticked with empty urgency, as though trying to catch up with the time. In the street a siren howled.

Ralph Ellison

fc23bd7

You're very insistent, but I'm very busy.

insistent

Ralph Ellison

7217bac

Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me.

Ralph Ellison

b94a3aa

And while the ice was melting to form a flood in which I threatened to drown I awoke one afternoon to find that my first northern winter had set.

Ralph Ellison

4a1d4d1

But we are all human, I thought, wondering what I meant.

Ralph Ellison

8404dbd

If only all the contradictory voices shouting inside my head would calm down and sing a song in unison, whatever it was I wouldn't care as long as they sang without dissonance.

Ralph Ellison

bc6699e

I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer.

Ralph Ellison

788b4ef

Words of Emancipation didn't arrive until the middle of June so they called it Juneteenth. his mind went on.

slavery freedom juneteenth liberty

Ralph Ellison

6c3d38a

I could hardly get to sleep for dreaming of revenge.

revenge ralph-ellison invisible-man

Ralph Ellison