Ralph Ellison Quotes


I am an invisible man. 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. Ralph Ellison Bone 246
If the word has the potency to revive and make us free, it has also the power to blind, imprison, and destroy. Ralph Ellison Words 240
America is woven of many strands. I would recognise them and let it so remain. Our fate is to become one, and yet many. This is not prophecy, but description. Ralph Ellison America 170
Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values. Ralph Ellison Relationship 155
The end is in the beginning and lies far ahead. Ralph Ellison Endings 102
Everywhere Ive turned somebody has wanted to sacrifice me for my own goodonly they were the ones who benefited. And now we start on the old sacrificial merrygoround. At what point do we stop Ralph Ellison Sacrifice 97
The act of writing requires a constant plunging back into the shadow of the past where time hovers ghostlike. Ralph Ellison Act 92
By and large, the critics and readers gave me an affirmed sense of my identity as a writer. You might know this within yourself, but to have it affirmed by others is of utmost importance. Writing is, after all, a form of communication. Ralph Ellison Affirmed 88
Had the price of looking been blindness, I would have looked. Ralph Ellison Blindness 82
I do not know if all cops are poets but I know that all cops carry guns with triggers. Ralph Ellison Fiction 79
Education is all a matter of building bridges. Ralph Ellison education 75
Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Ralph Ellison Control 67
I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Ralph Ellison Invisible 61
Words of Emancipation didnt arrive until the middle of June so they called it Juneteenth. So that was it the night of Juneteenth celebration his mind went on. The celebration of a gaudy illusion. Ralph Ellison Liberty 51
Perhaps everyone loved someone I didnt now I couldnt 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. Ralph Ellison Travel 49
I am not ashamed of my grandparents for having been slaves. I am only ashamed of myself for having at one time being ashamed. Ralph Ellison Ashamed 48
There are few things in the world as dangerous as sleepwalkers. Ralph Ellison Uncategorized 46
There must be possible a fiction which, leaving sociology and case histories to the scientists, can arrive at the truth about the human condition, here and now, with all the bright magic of the fairy tale. Ralph Ellison Face 44
Education is all a matter of building bridges. Ralph Ellison Education 43
Id been so fascinated by the notion that Id forgotten to measure what it was bringing forth. Id been asleep dreaming. Ralph Ellison Self awareness 31
God is love I said but arts the possibility of forms and shadows are the source of identity. Ralph Ellison Identity 27

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Ralph Ellison Quotes

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