Ta-Nehisi Coates Quotes

13 quotes

American writer, journalist, and educator

“My belief is in the chaos of the world and that you have to find your peace within the chaos and that you still have to find some sort of mission.”

"My work is to give you what I know of my own particular path while allowing you to walk your own."

on Wisdom

"I found that the same softness which once made me a target now compelled people to trust me with their stories."

on Empathy

"i think one has to even abandon the phrase "ally" and understand that you are not helping someone in a particular struggle; the fight is yours."

on Activism

"This is your country, this is your world, this is your body, and you must find some way to live within the all of it."

on Identity

"I would not have you descend into your own dream. I would have you be a conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world."

on Philosophy

"To question what I see, then to question what I see after that, because the questions matter as much, perhaps more than, the answers."

on Critical Thinking

"You are growing into consciousness, and my wish for you is that you feel no need to constrict yourself to make other people comfortable."

on Self Awareness

"I did not tell you it would be okay because I never believed it would be okay."

on Truth

"Racism is, among other things, the unearned skepticism of one group of humans joined to the unearned sympathy for another."

on Truth

"I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people's interests. The library is open, unending, free."

on Freedom

"The spirit and soul are the body and brain, which are destructible-that is precisely why they are so precious."

on Philosophy

"Anyone can make a baby, but it takes a man to be a father."

on Life