Best advice I ever got was an old friend mine, a black friend, who said you have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all.

James Baldwin

More information about this quote

Topic

Following your heart Being true to oneself Authenticity Life

Speaker

James Baldwin

Source

Village Voice

Medium

Interview Newspaper

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1984 1980s 20th century

Occupation

Black writer Writer

From

United States

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Baldwin, James. Quoted in "Go the Way Your Blood Beats." Interviewed by Richard Goldstein. Village Voice, 26 June 1984.

Current Citation

Baldwin, James. "Go the Way Your Blood Beats." James Baldwin: The Last Interview and Other Interviews. Melville House, 2014.

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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by James Baldwin

Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be.

James Baldwin

More information about this quote
Topic
Nature of freedom Liberation Freedom

Author

James Baldwin
Source
Notes for a Hypothetical Novel Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son
Medium
Essay
Language
English
Time
1961 1960s 20th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Baldwin, James. "Notes for a Hypothetical Novel." Nobody Knows My Name: More Notes of a Native Son. Dial Press, 1961.

Another quote from the 1980s

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.

Ronald Reagan

First Inaugural Address of Ronald Reagan

Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon
Read this speech at UVA's Miller Center website
More information about this quote
Topic
Limited government Political theory American politics
Speaker
Ronald Reagan
Source
First Inaugural Address of Ronald Reagan Presidential inaugural address
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Language
English
Time
1981 1980s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Reagan, Ronald. "First Inaugural Address." 20 Jan. 1981, West Front, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Another quote about Authenticity

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

William Shakespeare

Hamlet

Buy Hamlet at Amazon Buy Hamlet at Amazon
Read Hamlet at The Folger Shakespeare Library
More information about this quote
Topic
Being true to oneself Authenticity Personal integrity
Speaker
Lord Polonius

Author

William Shakespeare
Source
Hamlet
Medium
Play
Genre
Tragedy (play)
Statement Type
Advice
Language
English
Time
1616 1610s 17th century
Era
European Renaissance
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 1, sc. 3.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 3, sc. 4.

Another quote of the following type Advice

Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation.

Alasdair Gray

More information about this quote
Topic
How to live

Author

Alasdair Gray
Statement Type
Advice
Language
English
Time
2004 2000s 21st century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Gray, Alasdair. Engraved in the Canongate Wall of the Scottish Parliament Building. Edinburgh, Scotland. 2004.