The Autobiography of Malcolm X

by Malcolm X

But an educated woman, I suppose, can’t resist the temptation to correct an uneducated man.

So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.

This was my first lesson about gambling: if you see somebody winning all the time, he isn’t gambling, he’s cheating.

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.

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.

only guilt admitted accepts truth.

For evil to bend its knees, admitting its guilt, to implore the forgiveness of God, is the hardest thing in the world.

How is the black man going to get “civil rights” before first he wins his human rights?

“Jesus was brown.”

Love is disposition, behavior, attitude, thoughts, likes, dislikes—these

Human rights! Respect as human beings!

“Why, here in America, the seeds of racism are so deeply rooted in the white people collectively, their belief that they are ‘superior’ in some way is so deeply rooted, that these things are in the national white subconsciousness. Many whites are even actually unaware of their own racism, until they face some test, and then their racism emerges in one form or another.

delayed solution is a non-solution.

“What you are telling me is that it isn’t the American white man who is a racist, but it’s the American political, economic, and social atmosphere that automatically nourishes a racist psychology in the white man.”

But it is only after the deepest darkness that the greatest joy can come;

“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.

to not be ashamed of failing, but to get up and try again.

“Whether you use bullets or ballots, you’ve got to aim well; don’t strike at the puppet, strike at the puppeteer.” Did he envision any special area of activity?

it is the society that produced this that should be attacked, not the reaction that develops among the people who are the victims of that negative society.”

Many times the slanting of the news is able to bring about an atmosphere through which a few depraved and reckless individuals can take advantage.”