Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Eldridge Cleaver (American Activist)

Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (1935–98) was an American writer, political activist, and influential figure in the Black Power movement. His 1968 memoir Soul on Ice is a seminal work that explores Black alienation and identity in the United States.

Born in Wabbaseka, Arkansas, Cleaver spent much of his youth in Los Angeles, California. He faced numerous legal troubles, including arrests for marijuana possession and assault with intent to murder. While imprisoned, he studied influential thinkers such as Karl Marx, Frantz Fanon, and Malcolm X, which shaped his radical views on race and politics. In 1966, he joined the Black Panther Party as Minister of Information and became an outspoken advocate for Black liberation.

Cleaver’s Soul on Ice (1968) gained widespread attention for its raw honesty and critique of systemic racism. After a confrontation with police in 1968, he fled the United States, living in Cuba, Algeria, and France. By the late 1970s, he distanced himself from the Black Panther Party and embraced Christianity and conservative politics. Returning to the United States in 1975, he pled guilty to assault related to the 1968 shoot-out and received probation. His later work Soul on Fire (1978) reflects on his spiritual journey and life experiences.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Eldridge Cleaver

The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.
—Eldridge Cleaver
Topics: Hate

Respect commands itself and it can neither be given nor withheld when it is due.
—Eldridge Cleaver
Topics: Respectability, Respect

You are either part of the solution or part of the problem.
—Eldridge Cleaver
Topics: Choice, Part of The Whole, Realism, Choices

In prison, those things withheld from and denied to the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all.
—Eldridge Cleaver
Topics: Prison

The “paper tiger” hero, James Bond, offering the whites a triumphant image of themselves, is saying what many whites want desperately to hear reaffirmed: I am still the White Man, lord of the land, licensed to kill, and the world is still an empire at my feet.
—Eldridge Cleaver
Topics: Heroes/Heroism

Too much agreement kills the chat.
—Eldridge Cleaver
Topics: Agreement

The Twist was a guided missile, launched from the ghetto into the very heart of suburbia. The Twist succeeded, as politics, religion, and law could never do, in writing in the heart and soul what the Supreme Court could only write on the books.
—Eldridge Cleaver
Topics: Dancing, Dance

Americans think of themselves collectively as a huge rescue squad on twenty-four-hour call to any spot on the globe where dispute and conflict may erupt.
—Eldridge Cleaver

Too much agreement kills a chat.
—Eldridge Cleaver
Topics: Communication

If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America.
—Eldridge Cleaver
Topics: Change

All the gods are dead except the god of war.
—Eldridge Cleaver
Topics: God

Wondering Whom to Read Next?

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *