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Adversity
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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
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America
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Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat 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
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Capitalism
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It is impossible for capitalism to survive, primarily because the system of capitalism needs some blood to suck. Capitalism used to be like an eagle, but now it's more like a vulture. It used to be strong enough to go and suck anybody's blood whether they were strong or not. But now it has become more cowardly, like the vulture, and it can only suck the blood of the helpless. As the nations of the world free themselves, the capitalism has less victims, less to suck, and it becomes weaker and weaker. It's only a matter of time in my opinion before it will collapse completely.
-Malcolm X
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Coffee (or Tea)
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If I have a cup of coffee that is too strong for me because it is too black, I weaken it by pouring cream into it. I integrate it with cream. If I keep pouring enough cream in the coffee, pretty soon the entire flavor of the coffee is changed; the very nature of the coffee is changed. If enough cream is poured in, eventually you don't even know that I had coffee in this cup. This is what happened with the March on Washington. The whites didn't integrate it; they infiltrated it. Whites joined it; they engulfed it; they became so much a part of it, it lost its original flavor. It ceased to be a black march; it ceased to be militant; it ceased to be angry; it ceased to be impatient. In fact, it ceased to be a march.
-Malcolm X, Message to the Grass Roots, speech, Detroit (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 1, 1965), November, 1963
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Education
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Without education, you're not going anywhere in this world.
-Malcolm X
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Fellowship
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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
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Freedom
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If you're not ready to die for it, put the word freedom out of your vocabulary.
-Malcolm X
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Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you're a man, you take it.
-Malcolm X
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The only way we'll get freedom for ourselves is to identify ourselves with every oppressed people in the world. We are blood brothers to the people of Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba -- yes Cuba too.
-Malcolm X
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You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
-Malcolm X
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When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire... or preserve his freedom.
-Malcolm X
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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
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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.
-Malcolm X
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Greed
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You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker.
-Malcolm X
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Gun Control
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It is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks. It is legal and lawful to own a shotgun or a rifle. We believe in obeying the law.
-Malcolm X, March 12, 1964
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Libraries
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My alma mater was books, a good library. I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.
-Malcolm X
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Multiculturalism
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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
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Obedience
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Nonviolence is fine as long as it works.
-Malcolm X
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Patriotism
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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
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Power
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Power never takes a step back except in the face of more power.
-Malcolm X
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Purpose
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A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.
-Malcolm X
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Respect
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I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such, regardless of their color.
-Malcolm X
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Right, Rightness
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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
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Truth
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Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it.
-Malcolm X
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We do not condemn the preachers as an individual but we condemn what they teach. We urge that the preachers teach the truth, to teach our people the one important guiding rule of conduct -- unity of purpose.
-Malcolm X
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Books by and about Malcolm X