Malcolm X > Quotes

“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

“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

“If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else again.”
― Malcolm X

“Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the Gun down.”
― Malcolm X

“People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.”
― Malcolm X

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

“To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.”
― Malcolm X

“We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.”
― Malcolm X

“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.”
― Malcolm X

“You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker”
― 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

“If you have no critics you'll likely have no success. ”
― Malcolm X

“Truth is on the side of the oppressed.”
― Malcolm X

“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.”
― Malcolm X

“We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.”
― Malcolm X

“If you're not ready to die for it, take the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary.”
― Malcolm X

“A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can't play the part of a wise man.”
― Malcolm X

“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.”
― 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

“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

“To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace”
― 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

“The only way we'll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed people in the world. We are blood brothers to the people of Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba -- yes Cuba too.”
― 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

“Why am I as I am? To understand that of any person, his whole life, from
Birth must be reviewed. All of our experiences fuse into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us is an ingredient.”
― Malcolm X, The Autobiography Of Malcolm X

“I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream--I see an American nightmare.”
― Malcolm X

“I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me. 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”
― Malcolm X