quotes by Malcolm X

"If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything."
— Malcolm X

"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."
— Malcolm X (By Any Means Necessary (Malcolm X Speeches & Writings))

"My alma mater was books, a good library.... I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity."
— Malcolm X

"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole."
— Malcolm X

"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today."
— Malcolm X

"Truth is on the side of the oppressed."
— Malcolm X

"So early in my life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise."
— Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X)

"Hence I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight."
— Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley)

"If you have no critics you'll likely have no success. "
— Malcolm X

"How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what is yours?"
— Malcolm X

"We declare our right on this earth...to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."
— Malcolm X

"Don't be bitter. Remember Lot's wife when they kill me, and they surely will. You have to use all of your energy to do what it is you have to do. [To his wife Betty Shabazz]"
— Malcolm X

"I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they'll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action."
— Malcolm X

"We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity."
— Malcolm X

"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."
— Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley)

"Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery."
— Malcolm X

" I tell sincere white people, 'Work in conjunction with us- each of us working among our own kind.' Let sincere white individuals find all other white people they can who feel as they do- and let them form their own all-white groups, to work trying to convert other white people who are thinking and acting so racist. Let sincere whites go and teach non-violence to white people!
We will completely respect our white co-workers. They will deserve every credit. We will give them every credit. We will meanwhile be working among our own kind, in our own black communities- showing and teaching black men in ways that only other black men can- that the black man has got to help himself. Working separately, the sincere white people and sincere black people actually will be working together.
In our mutual sincerity we might be able to show a road to the salvation of America's very soul.
"
— Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X)

"The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive."
— Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley)

"People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book."
— Malcolm X (The Autobiography of Malcolm X)

"It"s good to keep wide-open ears and listen to what everybody else has to say, but when you come to make a decision, you have to weigh all of what you"ve heard on its own, and place it where it belongs, and come to a decision for yourself; you"ll never regret it. But if you form the habit of taking what someone else says about a thing without checking it out for yourself, you"ll find that other people will have you hating your friends and loving your enemies."
— Malcolm X