Quotes from Malcolm X

Its 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 youve heard on its own, and place it where it belongs, and come to a decision for yourself; youll never regret it. But if you form the habit of taking what someone else says about a thing without checking it out for yourself, youll find that other people will have you hating your friends and loving your enemies.

You get your freedom by letting your enemy know that you'll do anything to get it. Then you'll get it. It's the only way you'll get it.

I don't advocate violence; but if a man steps on my toes, I'll step on his...

Don't be bitter. Remember Lot's wife when they kill me, and they surely will. You have to use all of your energy to do what it is you have to do. [To his wife Betty Shabazz]

Do you know what integration really means? It means intermarriage. That's the real point behind it. You can't have it without intermarriage. And that would result in disintegration of both races.

A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.

I actually believed that after living as fully as humanly possible, one should then die violently. I expected then as I still expect today

Looking back, I think I really was at least slightly out of my mind. I viewed narcotics as most people regard food. I wore my guns as today I wear my neckties. Deep down, I actually believed that after living as fully as humanly possible, one should then die violently. I expected then, as I still expect today, to die at any time. But then, I think I deliberately invited death in many, sometimes insane, ways.

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

These negroes aren't asking for no nation. They wanna crawl back on the plantation.

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!

No man has believed perfectly until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.