Quotes by Malcolm X

"America preaches integration and practices segregation."

"I am for violence if non-violence means we continue postponing a solution to the American black man's problem just to avoid violence."

"I don't even call it violence when it's in self defense I call it intelligence."

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

"The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities - he is only reacting to 400 years of the conscious racism of the American whites."

"America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, even eaten with people who in America would have been considered 'white,' but the 'white' attitude had been removed from their minds by the religion of Islam."

"I don't even call it violence when it's in self defense; I call it intelligence."

"Truth is on the side of the oppressed."

"Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression, because power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action."

"Power never takes a back step only in the face of more power."

"You don't have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being."

"If, if a white man puts his arm around me voluntarily, that's brotherhood. But if you - if you hold a gun on him and make him embrace me and pretend to be friendly or brotherly toward me, then that's not brotherhood, that's hypocrisy."

"Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds. I have always kept an open mind, a flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of the intelligent search for truth."

"Segregation is that which is forced upon an inferior by a superior. Separation is done voluntarily by two equals."

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

"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against."

"You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it."

"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."

"Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it."

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

"The Negro revolution is controlled by foxy white liberals, by the Government itself. But the Black Revolution is controlled only by God."

"If you have no critics you'll likely have no success."

"In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure."

"No, we are not anti-white. But we don't have time for the white man. The white man is on top already, the white man is the boss already... He has first-class citizenship already. So you are wasting your time talking to the white man. We are working on our own people."

"The future belongs to those who prepare for it today."

"If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary."

"You can't legislate good will - that comes through education."

"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 the next time."

"The real names of our people were destroyed during slavery. The last name of my forefathers was taken from them when they were brought to America and made slaves, and then the name of the slave master was given, which we refuse, we reject that name today and refuse it. I never acknowledge it whatsoever."

"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today."

"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."

"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom."

"Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression."

"I believe in a religion that believes in freedom. Any time I have to accept a religion that won't let me fight a battle for my people, I say to hell with that religion."

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

"Without education, you are not going anywhere in this world."