63 Malcolm X Quotes on Education, Freedom, Love, Unity, Media, Equality, Violence and Racism
Malcolm X (born 19 May 1925, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. – died 21 February 1965, New York City, U.S.) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, he was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the Black community. After his assassination, the widespread distribution of his life story—The Autobiography of Malcolm X (1965)—made him an ideological hero, especially among Black youth.
Top 10 Famous Malcolm X Quotes
You’re not to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.I’m for truth, no matter who tells it. I’m for justice, no matter who it’s for or against.A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.The main thing you got to remember is that everything in the world is a hustle.A new world order is in the making, and it is up to us to prepare ourselves that we may take our rightful place in it.Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance next time.If you have no critics you’ll likely have no success.If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.
10 Malcolm X Quotes on Education
Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.Without education, you’re not going anywhere in this world.People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.My alma mater was books, a good library… I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.You can’t legislate good will – that comes through education.My homemade education gave me, with every additional book that I read, a little bit more sensitivity to the deafness, dumbness and blindness that was afflicting the black race in America.History is a people’s memory, and without a memory, a man is demoted to the lower animals.Read absolutely everything you get your hands on because you’ll never know where you’ll get an idea from.It is the process of mis-education that inhibits the full potential of a nation.
13 Inspirational Malcolm X Quotes
Learn to see, listen, and think for yourself.In any organization, someone must be the boss. If it’s even just one person, you’ve got to be the boss of yourself.Stumbling is not falling.Every morning when I wake up, now, I regard it as having another borrowed day.In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure.In fact, once he is motivated no one can change more completely than the man who has been at the bottom. I call myself the best example of that.I was going through the hardest thing, also the greatest thing, for any human being to do; to accept that which is already within you, and around you.You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree.Envy blinds men and makes it impossible for them to think clearly.To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.Truth does not change, only our awareness of it.It is only after the deepest darkness that the greatest joy can come.Anytime you find someone more successful than you are, especially when you’re both engaged in the same business – you know they’re doing something that you aren’t.
8 Malcolm X Quotes on Freedom
You get your freedom by letting your enemy know that you’ll do anything to get it. Then you’ll get it. It’s the only way you’ll get it.You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.It is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come.You don’t have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom.Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny, because the power of a just cause is based on conviction, and leads to resolute and uncompromising action.I feel like a man who has been asleep somewhat and under someone else’s control. I feel that what I’m thinking and saying is now for myself.Any time you beg another man to set you free, you will never be free. Freedom is something that you have to do for yourselves.
10 Malcolm X Quotes on Love and Unity
We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.How can anyone be against love?Children have a lesson adults should learn, to not be ashamed of failing, but to get up and try again.
When you live in a poor neighborhood, you are living in an area where you have poor schools. When you have poor schools, you have poor teachers. When you have poor teachers, you get a poor education. When you get a poor education, you can only work in a poor-paying job. And that poor-paying job enables you to live again in a poor neighborhood. So, it's a very vicious cycle.
Malcolm X
When 'I' replaced with 'We', even the illness becomes wellness.A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can’t play the part of a wise man.All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient.Usually, when people are sad, they don’t do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.Anytime you rely on your enemy for a job you’re in bad shape.I believe in treating people right, but I’m not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn’t know how to return the treatment.
10 Malcolm X Quotes on Violence, Racism and Equality
I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.I have more respect for a man who lets me know where he stands, even if he’s wrong, than the one who comes up like an angel and is nothing but a devil.A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself.Don’t be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn’t do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn’t know what you know today.So early in my life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery.Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.I believe in the brotherhood of all men, but I don’t believe in wasting brotherhood on anyone who doesn’t want to practice it with me. Brotherhood is a two-way street.Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the Gun down.My beliefs are now one hundred percent against racism and segregation in any form and I also believe that we don’t judge a person by the color of his skin but rather by his deeds.
2 Quotes About Media
The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.
