Malcolm X famous quotes

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

#Hate #Media #People

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

#Peace #Freedom #Inspiration

If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.
-- Malcolm X

#Love #Inspirational #Life

Anytime anyone is enslaved, or in any way deprived of his liberty, if that person is a human being, as far as I am concerned he is justified to resort to whatever methods necessary to bring about his liberty again.
-- Malcolm X

#Liberty #Way #Justified

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

#Powerful #Media #Mind

Without education, you are not going anywhere in this world.
-- Malcolm X

#Education #Morning #World

We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us.
-- Malcolm X

#People

A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.
-- Malcolm X

#Wisdom #Peace #War

We black men have a hard enough time in our own struggle for justice, and already have enough enemies as it is, to make the drastic mistake of attacking each other and adding more weight to an already unbearable load.
-- Malcolm X

#Mistake #Struggle #Men

Truth is on the side of the oppressed.
-- Malcolm X

#Truth #Sides #Truth Is

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

#Freedom #Fighting #Intelligent

One thing that the white man can never give the black man is self respect. The black man in the ghettos, have to start self correcting his own material moral, and spiritual defects, and evil. The black man need to start his own program to get rid of drunkenness, drug addiction and prostitution. The black man in America has to lift up his own sense of values.
-- Malcolm X

#Spiritual #Ghetto #Men

I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.
-- Malcolm X

#Believe #Color #Racism

America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem.
-- Malcolm X

#Race #America #Islam

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.
-- Malcolm X

#Personality #Ingredients #Birth

I believe in the brotherhood of all men, but I don't believe in wasting brotherhood on anyone who doesn't want to practice it with me. Brotherhood is a two-way street.
-- Malcolm X

#Believe #Men #Two

America's greatest crime against the black man was not slavery or lynching, but that he was taught to wear a mask of self-hate and self-doubt.
-- Malcolm X

#Hate #Men #Self

How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what is yours?
-- Malcolm X

#Men #Giving

My father didn't know his real name. My father got his name from his grandfather and he got his name from his grandfather and he got it from the slave master.
-- Malcolm X

#Father #Real #Names

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

#Life #Education #Reading

We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.
-- Malcolm X

#Self Worth #Thinking #Firsts

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

#Truth #Justice #Humanity

Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality....
-- Malcolm X

#Justice #Independence #Revolution

We must establish all over the country schools of our own to train our own children to become scientists, to become mathematicians. We must realize the need for adult education and for job retraining programs that will emphasize a changing society in which automation plays the key role. We intend to use the tools of education to help raise our people to an unprecedented level of excellence and self respect through their own efforts.
-- Malcolm X

#Country #Children #School

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

#Inspirational #Peace #Patriotic

History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals.
-- Malcolm X

#Inspiring #Memories #Men

You have to be very careful introducing the truth to the black man, who has never previously heard the truth about himself. The black brother is so brainwashed that he may reject the truth when he first hears it. You have to drop a little bit on him at a time, and wait a while to let that sink in before advancing to the next step
-- Malcolm X

#Brother #Men #Waiting

There can be no black-white unity until there is first some black unity.... We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.
-- Malcolm X

#Thinking #White #Black

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

#Motivational #Freedom #Patriotic

If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.
-- Malcolm X

#Country #Baby #Children

Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you think or as fast. There was a time when you didn't know what you know today.
-- Malcolm X

#Knowledge #Thinking #Equality

Of all our studies, history is best qualified to reward our research. And when you see that you've got problems, all you have to do is examine the historic method used all over the world by others who have problems similar to yours. And once you see how they got theirs straight, then you know how you can get yours straight.
-- Malcolm X

#Powerful #Rewards #Research

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.
-- Malcolm X

#Attitude #White #America

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

#Color #Long #People

You can’t hate the roots of the tree without ending up hating the tree. You can’t hate your origin without ending up hating yourself. You can’t hate the land, your motherland, the place that you come from, and we can’t hate Africa without ending up hating ourselves. The Black man in the Western Hemisphere—North America, Central America, South America, and in the Caribbean—is the best example of how one can be made, skillfully, to hate himself that you can find anywhere on this earth.
-- Malcolm X

#Hate #Men #Land

Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner. You must be eating some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American.
-- Malcolm X

#America #History #Sitting

I just don't believe that when people are being unjustly oppressed that they should let someone else set rules for them by which they can come out from under that oppression.
-- Malcolm X

#Believe #People #Oppression

I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they'll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.
-- Malcolm X

#Believe #People #Giving

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

#Life #Hard Work #Learning

The greatest weapon the colonial powers have used in the past against our people has always been his ability to divide and conquer.  If I take my hand and slap you, it might sting you because these digits are separated.  But all I have to do to put you back in your place is bring those digits together.
-- Malcolm X

#Past #Hands #People

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.
-- Malcolm X

#Crush #Compassion #People

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

#Truth #Justice #Matter

In fact, once he is motivated no one can change more completely than the man who has been at the bottom. I call myself the best example of that.
-- Malcolm X

#Men #Example #Facts

A wise man can play the part of a clown, but a clown can't play the part of a wise man.
-- Malcolm X

#Motivational #Wise #Men

We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.
-- Malcolm X

#Light #Understanding #Unity

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

#Regret #Hate #People

People don't realize how a man's whole life can be changed by one book.
-- Malcolm X

#Book #Men #People

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

#Life #Inspiring #Education

What is a Dixiecrat? A Democrat. A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise.
-- Malcolm X

#Democrat #Disguise

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

#Mean #Rights #Earth

The day that the black man takes an uncompromising step and realizes that he's within his rights, when his own freedom is being jeopardized, to use any means necessary to bring about his freedom or put a halt to that injustice, I don't think he'll be by himself.
-- Malcolm X

#Freedom #Mean #Men

It is incorrect to classify the revolt of the Negro as simply a radical conflict of black against white or as a purely American problem. Rather, we are today seeing a global rebellion of the oppressed against the oppressor, the exploited against the exploiter.
-- Malcolm X

#White #Black #Today

It’ll be the ballot or it’ll be the bullet. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death. And if you’re not ready to pay that price don’t use the word freedom in your vocabulary.
-- Malcolm X

#Vocabulary #Liberty #Use

Our objective is complete freedom, justice and equality by any means necessary.
-- Malcolm X

#Inspiring #Mean #Justice

It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won't even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep.
-- Malcolm X

#Strong #Coffee #Mean

Of all our studies, it is history that is best qualified to reward our research.
-- Malcolm X

#Research #Rewards #Study

I, for one, will join in with anyone -- I don't care what color you are -- as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth.
-- Malcolm X

#Color #Long #Earth

I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being--neither white, black, brown, or red; and when you are dealing with humanity as a family there's no question of integration or intermarriage. It's just one human being marrying another human being or one human being living around and with another human being.
-- Malcolm X

#Believe #White #Humanity

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

#Mistake #Sleep #People

Our people have made the mistake of confusing the methods with the objectives. As long as we agree on objectives, we should never fall out with each other just because we believe in different methods, or tactics, or strategy. We have to keep in mind at all times that we are not fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as free humans in this society.
-- Malcolm X

#Mistake #Fall #Believe

Twenty-two million African-Americans - that's what we are - Africans who are in America.
-- Malcolm X

#Two #America #African American

Look at yourselves. Some of you teenagers, students. How do you think I feel and I belong to a generation ahead of you - how do you think I feel to have to tell you, 'We, my generation, sat around like a knot on a wall while the whole world was fighting for its hum an rights - and you've got to be born into a society where you still have that same fight.' What did we do, who preceded you ? I'll tell you what we did. Nothing. And don't you make the same mistake we made....
-- Malcolm X

#Wall #Mistake #Teenager

Who taught you to hate yourself?
-- Malcolm X

#Hate #Taught

A race of people is like and individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself.
-- Malcolm X

#Pride #Men #Race

If you are in a country that is progressive, the woman is progressive. If you're in a country that reflects the consciousness toward the importance of education, it's because the woman is aware of the importance of education. But in every backward country you'll find the women are backward, and in every country where education is not stressed its because the women don't have education.
-- Malcolm X

#Country #Stressed #Consciousness

Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it.
-- Malcolm X

#Doe #Matter

The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make a criminal look like he's the victim and make the victim look like he's the criminal. This is the press, an irresponsible press. If you aren't careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.
-- Malcolm X

#Powerful #Hate #People

I believe in Islam. I am a Muslim and there is nothing wrong with being a Muslim, nothing wrong with the religion of Islam. It just teaches us to believe in Allah as the God. Those of you who are Christian probably believe in the same God, because I think you believe in the God Who created the universe. That's the One we believe in, the One Who created universe--the only difference being you call Him God and we call Him Allah. The Jews call Him Jehovah. If you could understand Hebrew, you would probably call Him Jehovah too. If you could understand Arabic, you would probably call Him Allah....
-- Malcolm X

#Christian #Believe #Thinking

An English writer telephoned me from London, asking questions. One was, ‘What’s your alma mater?’ I told him, ‘Books.
-- Malcolm X

#Book #Asking Questions #Alma Mater

You can't hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree.
-- Malcolm X

#Hate #Roots #Racism

I know that societies often have killed people who have helped to change those societies. And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America, then, all credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine.
-- Malcolm X

#Meaningful #Wisdom #Cancer

Anytime you find someone more successful than you are, especially when you're both engaged in the same business - you know they're doing something that you aren't.
-- Malcolm X

#Business #Successful

Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change.
-- Malcolm X

#Anger #People #Cry

Allah always gives you signs, when you are with Him, that He is with you.
-- Malcolm X

#Giving

One of the things that made the Black Muslim movement grow was its emphasis upon things African. This was the secret to the growth of the Black Muslim movement. African blood, African origin, African culture, African ties. And you'd be surprised - we discovered that deep within the subconscious of the black man in this country, he is still more African than he is American.
-- Malcolm X

#Country #Men #Ties

Human rights are something you were born with. Human rights are your God-given rights. Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of this earth.
-- Malcolm X

#Rights #Earth #Born

I am a Muslim and . . . my religion makes me be against all forms of racism. It keeps me from judging any man by the color of his skin. It teaches me to judge him by his deeds .
-- Malcolm X

#Men #Color #Racism

If you have a dog, I must have a dog. If you have a rifle, I must have a rifle. If you have a club, I must have a club. This is equality.
-- Malcolm X

#Dog #Rifles #Clubs

It's liberty or death! It's freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody!
-- Malcolm X

#Liberty

America preaches integration and practices segregation.
-- Malcolm X

#Practice #America #Segregation

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

#Peace #Hands #Law

Just as a tree without roots is dead, a people without history or cultural roots also becomes a dead people.
-- Malcolm X

#Roots #People #Tree

When the people who are in power want to ... 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

#People #Devil #Criminals

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.
-- Malcolm X

#Friendship #Believe #Men

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

#Government #White #Racism

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

#Freedom #Vocabulary #Ready

The White man pays Reverend Martin Luther King so that Martin Luther King can keep the Negro defenseless.
-- Malcolm X

#Kings #Men #White

When we send our children to school, they learn nothing about us other than we used to be cotton pickers. Why, your grandfather was Nat Turner; your grandfather was Toussaint L'Ouverture; your grandfather was Hannibal. It was your grandfather's hands who forged civilization and it was your grandmother's hands who rocked the cradle of civilization. But the textbooks tell our children nothing.
-- Malcolm X

#Children #School #Grandmother

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.
-- Malcolm X

#Real #Taken #Names

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.
-- Malcolm X

#Time #Adversity #Loss

WHEN “I” IS REPLACED WITH “WE” EVEN ILLNESS BECOMES WELLNESS.
-- Malcolm X

#Wellness #Illness #Replaced

I do not pretend to be a divine man, but I do believe in divine guidance, divine power, and in the fulfillment of divine prophecy. I am not educated, nor am I an expert in any particular field but I am sincere, and my sincerity is my credentials.
-- Malcolm X

#Believe #Men #Experts

Concerning non-violence: it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.
-- Malcolm X

#Men #Racism #Violence

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

#Angel #Men #Devil

Stumbling is not falling.
-- Malcolm X

#Fall #Design #African American

The common goal of 22 million Afro-Americans is respect as human beings, the God-given right to be a human being. Our common goal is to obtain the human rights America has been denying us. We can never get civil rights in America until our human rights are first restored. We will never be recognized as citizens there until we are first recognized as humans.
-- Malcolm X

#America #Rights #Goal

I can't turn around without hearing about some 'civil rights advance'! White people seem to think the black ought to be shouting 'hallelujah'! Four hundred years the white man has had his foot-long knife in the black man's back - and now the white man starts to wiggle the knife out, maybe six inches! The black man's supposed to be grateful? Why, if the white man jerked the knife out, it's still going to leave a scar!
-- Malcolm X

#Grateful #Men #Thinking

We, the Black masses, don't want these leaders who seek our support coming to us representing a certain political party. They must come to us today as Black Leaders representing the welfare of Black people. We won't follow any leader today who comes on the basis of political party. Both parties (Democrat and Republican) are controlled by the same people who have abused our rights, and who have deceived us with false promises every time an election rolls around.
-- Malcolm X

#Party #Rights #People

Ignorance of each other is what has made unity impossible in the past. Therefore we need enlightenment. We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity. Once we have more knowledge (light) about each other, we will stop condemning each other and a United front will be brought about.
-- Malcolm X

#Life #Ignorance #Past

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.
-- Malcolm X

#Reality #Men #Intelligent