"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 careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." ~ 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
"One of the first things I think young people, especially nowadays, should learn is how to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself. Then you can come to an intelligent decision for yourself. If you form the habit of going by what you hear others say about someone, or going by what others think about someone, instead of searching that thing out for yourself and seeing for yourself, you will be walking west when you think you're going east, and you will be walking east when you think you're going west." ~ 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 don't stand for something you will fall for anything." ~ Malcolm X
"When 'I' replaced with 'We', even the illness becomes wellness." ~ Malcolm X
"If you stick a knife nine inches into my back and pull it out three inches, that is not progress. Even if you pull it all the way out, that is not progress. Progress is healing the wound, and America hasn't even begun to pull out the knife." ~ Malcolm X
"Hatred and anger are powerless when met with kindness." ~ Malcolm X
"When the people who are in power want to use again, create an image, to justify something that's bad, they use the press. And they'll use the press to create a humanitarian image, for a devil, or a devil image for a humanitarian. They'll take a person who's a victim of the crime, and make it appear he's the criminal, and they'll take the criminal and make it appear that he's the victim of the crime." ~ 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
"You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it." ~ Malcolm X
"Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today." ~ Malcolm X
"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." ~ 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
"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
"I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color." ~ Malcolm X
"We won't organize any black man to be a Democrat or a Republican because both of them have sold us out. Both of them have sold us out; both parties have sold us out. Both parties are racist, and the Democratic Party is more racist than the Republican Party." ~ Malcolm X
"Learn to see, listen, and think for yourself." ~ 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
"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
"The only thing power respects, is power." ~ Malcolm X
"Only a fool would let his enemy teach his children." ~ Malcolm X
"You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom." ~ Malcolm X
"Just as a tree without roots is dead, a people without history or cultural roots also becomes a dead people." ~ Malcolm X
"Education is an important element in the struggle for human rights. It is the means to help our children and thereby increase self-respect. Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today." ~ Malcolm X
"I believe that there will be ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don't think it will be based on the color of the skin." ~ Malcolm X
"One day, may we all meet together in the light of understanding." ~ Malcolm X
"The mother is the first teacher of the child. The message she gives that child, that child gives to the world." ~ Malcolm X
"You and I have never seen democracy; all we've seen is hypocrisy." ~ Malcolm X
"That's not a chip on my shoulder, that's your foot on my neck." ~ Malcolm X
"The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you'll get action." ~ Malcolm X
"Read absolutely everything you get your hands on because you'll never know where you'll get an idea from." ~ Malcolm X
"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
"The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman." ~ Malcolm X
"You're living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution A time where there's got to be a change. People in power have misused it And now there has to be a change and a better world has to be built And the only way is going to be built is with extreme methods And I for one will join with anyone, don't care what color you are As long as you want change this miserable condition that exists on this earth" ~ Malcolm X
"As long as a white man does it, it's alright, a black man is supposed to have no feelings. But when a black man strikes back he's an extremist, he's supposed to sit passively and have no feelings, be nonviolent, and love his enemy no matter what kind of attack, verbal or otherwise, he's supposed to take it. But if he stands up in any way and tries to defend himself, then he's an extremist." ~ Malcolm X