Quotes & anectdotes from
the wise,
the foolish,
the courageous &
the drunk

Malcolm X Activist

  • Gender: Male
  • Citizenship: United States
  • Born: May 19, 1925
  • Died: Feb 21, 1965

Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an African-American Muslim minister and a human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of blacks, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against black Americans; detractors accused him of preaching racism and violence. He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history.

Malcolm X was effectively orphaned early in life. His father was killed when he was six and his mother was placed in a mental hospital when he was thirteen, after which he lived in a series of foster homes.

In 1946, at age 20, he went to prison for larceny and breaking and entering. While in prison he became a member of the Nation of Islam, and after his parole in 1952 quickly rose to become one of its leaders. For a dozen years he was the public face of the controversial group; in keeping with the Nation's teachings he espoused black supremacy, advocated the separation of black and white Americans and scoffed at the civil rights movement's emphasis on integration.

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

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

You can't legislate good will - that comes through education.

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

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

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

Power never takes a back step only in the face of more power.

If you have no critics you'll likely have no success.

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

You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it.

You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or who says it.

Truth is on the side of the oppressed.

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

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

Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression.

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

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

The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.

In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure.

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

I don't even call it violence when it's in self defense I call it intelligence.