98 Most Notable Malcolm X Quotes That Never Lose Relevance

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

You

Malcolm X  

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

Life Books I

Malcolm X  

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  

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

Future

Malcolm X  

Sometimes you have to pick the gun up to put the Gun down.

You

Malcolm X  

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

Life

Malcolm X  

To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal.

You Me Death I

Malcolm X  

If someone puts their hands on you make sure they never put their hands on anybody else again.

You Never

Malcolm X  

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

You

Malcolm X  

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.

Change

Malcolm X  

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

Think

Malcolm X  

You show me a capitalist, and I'll show you a bloodsucker

You Me

Malcolm X  

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.

Power

Malcolm X  

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.

You Will

Malcolm X  

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

You Life I

Malcolm X  

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

You

Malcolm X  

Truth is on the side of the oppressed.

Malcolm X  

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

Malcolm X  

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

Love Need

Malcolm X  

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.

Me Will I

Malcolm X  

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

Malcolm X  

The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.

Me

Malcolm X  

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?

You

Malcolm X  

To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace

Malcolm X  

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  

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.

You Think Time

Malcolm X  

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.

Life Personality I

Malcolm X  

I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream--I see an American nightmare.

I

Malcolm X  

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.

You Trying

Malcolm X  

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

I

Malcolm X  

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

You

Malcolm X  

The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.

Future

Malcolm X  

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

You

Malcolm X  

As long as you are convinced you have never done anything, you can never do anything.

You Never

Malcolm X  

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.

Change I

Malcolm X  

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.

You

Malcolm X  

And just because you have colleges and universities doesn't mean you have education.

You

Malcolm X  

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  

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

You

Malcolm X  

True Islam taught me that it takes all of the religious, political, economic, psychological, and racial ingredients, or characteristics, to make the Human Family and the Human Society complete.

Me Family

Malcolm X  

It is only after slavery and prison that the sweetest appreciation of freedom can come.

Malcolm X  

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.

You Business

Malcolm X  

By any means necessary.

Malcolm X  

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 next time.

Time

Malcolm X  

One day, may we all meet together in the light of understanding.

Together

Malcolm X  

If you dont stand for something you fall for everything.

You

Malcolm X  

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

I

Malcolm X  

They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they.

Malcolm X  

Read absolutely everything you get your hands on because you'll never know where you'll get an idea from...

You Never

Malcolm X  

We all like chicken

Like

Malcolm X  

Only the mistakes were mine.

Malcolm X  

I imagine that one of the biggest troubles with colleges is there are too many distractions, too much panty-raiding, fraternities, and boola-boola and all of that.

I

Malcolm X  

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]

You Me Will

Malcolm X  

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.

You

Malcolm X  

Western interests: imperialism, colonialism, exploitation, racism, and other negative -isms.

Malcolm X  

We didn't land on plymouth rock, Plymouth rock landed on us".

Malcolm X  

You can't have capitalism without racism.

You

Malcolm X  

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  

I was going through the hardest thing, also the greatest thing, for any human being to do; to accept that which is already within you, and around you.

You I

Malcolm X  

To the same degree that your understanding of and attitude towards Afrika becomes more positive, your understanding of and attitude towards yourself will also becomes more positive...

Yourself Will

Malcolm X  

To tell a woman not to talk too much was like telling Jesse James not to carry a gun, or a hen not to cackle.

Like

Malcolm X  

Who taught you to hate yourself?

You Yourself

Malcolm X  

You can cuss out colonialism, imperialism, and all other kinds of ism, but it's hard for you to cuss that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, your soul goes.

You Soul

Malcolm X  

... the young people are the ones who most quickly identify with the struggle and the necessity to eliminate the evil conditions that exist.

Young

Malcolm X  

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

Me I

Malcolm X  

I'm a man who believes that I died 20 years ago. And I live like a man who is dead already. I have no fear whatsoever of anybody or anything.

Like Fear I

Malcolm X  

I Used the Word 'Negro' and I was Firmly Corrected

I

Malcolm X  

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

Believe I

Malcolm X  

Let's cool it, brothers.

Malcolm X  

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

History

Malcolm X  

You are either free or not free

You

Malcolm X  

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.

Me Like I

Malcolm X  

Right now, in every big city ghetto, tens of thousands of yesterday's and today's school dropouts are keeping body and soul together by some form of hustling in the same way I did.

Together Soul I

Malcolm X  

Time is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. Truth is on the side of the oppressed today, it's against the oppressor. You don't need anything else.

You Time Need

Malcolm X  

We're not Americans, we're Africans who happen to be in America. We were kidnapped and brought here against our will from Africa. We didn't land on Plymouth Rock - that rock landed on us.

Will

Malcolm X  

My family was so poor we were close to eating the holes inside of doughnuts.

Family

Malcolm X  

How is it possible to write one's autobiography in a world so fast-changing as this?

Malcolm X  

I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.

I

Malcolm X  

It is only after the deepest darkness that the greatest joy can come

Malcolm X  

I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.-because you can hardly mention anything I am not curious about.

You Life I

Malcolm X  

A man curses because he doesn't have the words to say what's on his mind.

Malcolm X  

Its the hinge that squeaks that gets the grease

Malcolm X  

A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.

Will

Malcolm X  

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

Malcolm X  

Any time you beg another man to set you free, you will never be free. Freedom is something that you have to do for yourselves.

You Never Time Will

Malcolm X  

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

Future

Malcolm X  

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

Malcolm X  

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

Power

Malcolm X  

My feeling about in-laws was that they were outlaws.

Malcolm X  

I could spend the rest of my life READING, Just satisfying my CURIOSITY - because you can hardly mention anything I'm not curious about.

You Life I

Malcolm X  

People don’t realize how a man’s whole life can be changed by one book.

Life

Malcolm X  

Do Your Best Work

Malcolm X  

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

Malcolm X  

Segregation is that which is forced upon inferiors by superiors. But separation is that which is done voluntarily, by two equals- for the good of both.

Malcolm X  

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

Living I

Malcolm X  

It seems that some women love to be exploited. when they are not exploited, they exploit the man.

Love Women

Malcolm X  

BOOKS… "The Loom of Language

Malcolm X  

Time is more important to me then distance

Me Time

Malcolm X