Quotes from Ralph Ellison

And all Negroes at some period of their lives there is that yearning for a sense of group unity that is the yearning of men for a flag: for a unity that cannot be compromised, that cannot be bought; that is conscious of itself, of its strength, that is militant.

Only men who are not only corrupt but whose corruption has frozen over and hardened can confess the things they do and still accept positions of leadership. They are dead men and unless they're controlled by public opinion and every other available force, they're as dangerous as Nazis. More so, because they still speak in the name of the only possible future. I

Nine owls have squawked out the rules and the hawks will talk, so soon they'll come marching out of the woodpile and the woodwork—sore-head, sore-foot, right up close, one-butt-shuffling into history but demanding praise and kind treatment for deeds undone, for lessons unlearned. But studying war once more...

Well, you had better speak more slowly so we can understand. We mean to do right by you, but you've got to know your place at all times. All right, now, go on with your speech.

Agree 'em to death and destruction," grandfather had advised.

I could feel their eyes, saw them all and saw too the time when they would know that my prospects were ended and saw already the contempt they'd feel for me, a college man who had lost his prospects and pride. I could see it all and I knew that even the officials and the older men would despise me as though, somehow, in losing my place in Bledsoe's world I had betrayed them . . . I saw it as they looked at my overalls.

I knew that they were about to attack the man and I was both afraid and angry, repelled and fascinated. I both wanted it and feared the consequences, was outraged and angered at what I saw and yet surged with fear; not for the man or of the consequences of an attack, but of what the sight of violence might release in me. And beneath it all there boiled up all the shock-absorbing phrases that I had learned all my life. I seemed to totter on the edge of a great dark hole.

and knowing now who I was and where I was and knowing too that I had no longer to run for or from the Jack's and the Emerson's and the Bledsoe's and the Norton's...but only from their confusion and impatience and refusal to recognize the beautiful absurdity of their American identity...and mine...

I'd had too many drinks. Time ran invisible, fluid, sad.

Without light I am not only invisible, but formless as well; and to be unaware of one's form is to live a death.

How could you treat a Negro as equal in war and then deny him equality during times of

Life is as the sea, art a ship in which man conquers life's crushing formlessness, reducing it to a course, a series of swells, tides and wind currents inscribed on a chart.

After such knowledge, and given the persistence of racial violence and the unavailability of legal protection, I asked myself, what else was there to sustain our will to persevere but laughter?

Without light I am not only invisible, but formless as well; and to be unaware of one's form is to live a death. I myself, after existing some twenty years, did not become alive until I discovered my invisibility.

So still and silent that they clash with the crowd in their very immobility; standing noisy in their silence; harsh as a cry of terror in their quietness.

Well, few men love the truth or even regard facts so dearly as to let either one upset their picture of the world. Poor Galileo, poor John Jasper; they persecuted one and laughed at the other, but both were witnesses for the truth they professed.

the younger crowd for whom I now felt a contempt such as only a disillusioned dreamer feels for those still unaware that they dream...

Here I had thought they accepted me because they felt that color made no difference, when in reality it made no difference because they didn't see either color or men Ã¢â'¬Â¦ For all they were concerned, we were so many names scribbled on fake ballots, to be used at their convenience and when not needed to be filed away. It was a joke, an absurd joke.

a delegate shout out from the floor: "Peonage, Anti-Lynch Bill, poll tax, these are our issues. They are the most controversial issues in American life, and some of us will have to die for them! Yes, we want to join with the CIO! We cannot stop for controversy!" And there in the faces of my people I saw strength. There with the whites in the audience I saw the positive forces of civilization and the best guarantee of America's future.

What did I do To be so black And blue?

You ache with the need to convince yourself that you do exist in the real world, that you're part of all the sound and anguish

Responsibility rests upon recognition, and recognition is a form of agreement.

What is wrong with this gentleman, Sylvester?' the tall one said. 'A man's dying outside!' I said. 'Someone is always dying,' the other one said. 'Yes, and it's good to die beneath God's great tent of sky.

I didn't want to be trouble to anyone," I said. "Everybody has to be trouble to somebody.