Search quotes

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
b52a2b9	I had switched from the arrogant absurdity of Norton and Emerson to that of Jack and the Brotherhood, and it all came out the same--except I now recognized my invisibility. So I'd accept it, I'd explore it, rine and heart. I'd		Ralph Ellison
f814e8b	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; yes, and avoided uncertain extremes of the scale.		Ralph Ellison
df01d63	Was it that she understood that we resented having others think that we were all entertainers and natural singers? But now after the mutual laughter something disturbed me: Shouldn't there be some way for us to be asked to sing? Shouldn't the short man have the right to make a mistake without his motives being considered consciously or unconsciously malicious? After all, he was singing, or trying to. What if I asked him to sing?	timeless problems	Ralph Ellison
fa791ab	sometimes the difference between individual and organized indignation is the difference between criminal and political action		Ralph Ellison
0623690	Here are the facts. He was standing and he fell. He fell and he kneeled. He kneeled and he bled. He bled and he died. He fell in a heap like any man and his blood spilled out like any blood; red as any blood, wet as any blood and reflecting the sky and buildings and birds and trees, or your face if you looked into its dulling mirror-and it dried in the sun as blood dries. That's all. They spilled his blood and he bled. They cut him down and..		Ralph Ellison
2e9b9f3	Why do you laugh?" he said. "Because at a price I now see that which I couldn't see," I said."		Ralph Ellison
9137fba	I'm an invisible man and it placed me in a hole--or showed me the hole I was in, if you will--and I reluctantly accepted the fact.		Ralph Ellison
571b7c6	When one is invisible he finds such problems as good and evil, honesty and dishonesty, of such shifting shapes that he confuses one with the other, depending upon who happens to be looking through him at the time.		Ralph Ellison
1f3a398	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.		Ralph Ellison
6c32036	I've never been more loved and appreciated than when I tried to "justify" and affirm someone's mistaken beliefs; or when I've tried to give my friends the incorrect, absurd answers they wished to hear."		Ralph Ellison
10d9cf0	they could talk and agree with themselves, the world was nailed down, and they loved it. They received a feeling of security.		Ralph Ellison
1d4e426	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.		Ralph Ellison
f590d0a	I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.		Ralph Ellison
62ffed0	Our fate is to become one, and yet many-- This is not prophecy, but description.		Ralph Ellison
c33ae7b	Perhaps to lose a sense of where you are implies the danger of losing a sense of who you are. That must be it, I thought--to lose your direction is to lose your face.		Ralph Ellison
42a522e	Without the possibility of action, all knowledge comes to one labeled "file and forget," and I can neither file nor forget."		Ralph Ellison
fda3c67	And the mind that has conceived a plan of living must never lose sight of the chaos against which that pattern was conceived.		Ralph Ellison
2542d96	Closed societies are now the flimsiest of illusions, for all the outsiders are demanding in.		Ralph Ellison
aa7d32c	Good fiction is made of that which is real, and reality is difficult to come by.		Ralph Ellison
962924b	Injustice wears ever the same harsh face wherever it shows itself.		Ralph Ellison
0e97ccb	It is sometimes advantageous to be unseen, although it is most often rather wearing on the nerves.		Ralph Ellison
6654d03	T]here are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers.		Ralph Ellison
1526734	T]he end is in the beginning and lies far ahead.		Ralph Ellison
b7cb9c7	The truth is the light and light is the truth.		Ralph Ellison
28b38d7	A hibernation is a covert preparation for a more overt action.		Ralph Ellison
cc157cc	Had the price of looking been blindness, I would have looked.		Ralph Ellison
fb41831	Play the game, but don't believe in it.		Ralph Ellison
0148c13	T]here's always an element of crime in freedom.		Ralph Ellison
06af41d	T]he world is possibility if only you'll discover it.		Ralph Ellison
4286055	T]o hell with being ashamed of what you liked.		Ralph Ellison
31d3bc6	And yet I am what they think I am.		Ralph Ellison
645ebd3	And I knew that it was better to live out one's own absurdity than to die for that of others.		Ralph Ellison
8dd35b3	Whence all this passion toward conformity anyway?--diversity is the word.		Ralph Ellison
36183be	Without the possibility of action, all knowledge comes to one labeled "File and forget."		Ralph Ellison
6cb5324	Words are everything and don't you forget it, ever.		Ralph Ellison
b8a41e3	Meaning grows in the mind, but the shape and form of the act remains.		Ralph Ellison

b52a2b9

I had switched from the arrogant absurdity of Norton and Emerson to that of Jack and the Brotherhood, and it all came out the same--except I now recognized my invisibility. So I'd accept it, I'd explore it, rine and heart. I'd

Ralph Ellison

f814e8b

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; yes, and avoided uncertain extremes of the scale.

Ralph Ellison

df01d63

Was it that she understood that we resented having others think that we were all entertainers and natural singers? But now after the mutual laughter something disturbed me: Shouldn't there be some way for us to be asked to sing? Shouldn't the short man have the right to make a mistake without his motives being considered consciously or unconsciously malicious? After all, he was singing, or trying to. What if I asked him to sing?

timeless problems

Ralph Ellison

fa791ab

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

Ralph Ellison

0623690

Here are the facts. He was standing and he fell. He fell and he kneeled. He kneeled and he bled. He bled and he died. He fell in a heap like any man and his blood spilled out like any blood; red as any blood, wet as any blood and reflecting the sky and buildings and birds and trees, or your face if you looked into its dulling mirror-and it dried in the sun as blood dries. That's all. They spilled his blood and he bled. They cut him down and..

Ralph Ellison

2e9b9f3

Why do you laugh?" he said. "Because at a price I now see that which I couldn't see," I said."

Ralph Ellison

9137fba

I'm an invisible man and it placed me in a hole--or showed me the hole I was in, if you will--and I reluctantly accepted the fact.

Ralph Ellison

571b7c6

When one is invisible he finds such problems as good and evil, honesty and dishonesty, of such shifting shapes that he confuses one with the other, depending upon who happens to be looking through him at the time.

Ralph Ellison

1f3a398

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.

Ralph Ellison

6c32036

I've never been more loved and appreciated than when I tried to "justify" and affirm someone's mistaken beliefs; or when I've tried to give my friends the incorrect, absurd answers they wished to hear."

Ralph Ellison

10d9cf0

they could talk and agree with themselves, the world was nailed down, and they loved it. They received a feeling of security.

Ralph Ellison

1d4e426

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.

Ralph Ellison

f590d0a

I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open.

Ralph Ellison

62ffed0

Our fate is to become one, and yet many-- This is not prophecy, but description.

Ralph Ellison

c33ae7b

Perhaps to lose a sense of where you are implies the danger of losing a sense of who you are. That must be it, I thought--to lose your direction is to lose your face.