I felt that even when they were polite they hardly saw me, that they would have begged the … - Ralph Ellison

Same topic Authors

Quote of the day

Racism will disappear when it's no longer profitable, and no longer psychologically useful. And when that happens, it'll be gone. But at the moment, people make a lot of money off of it, pro and con.

Ralph Ellison

I felt that even when they were polite they hardly saw me, that they would have begged the pardon of Jack the Bear, never glancing his way if the bear happened to be walking along minding his business. It was confusing. I did not know if it was desirable or undesirable.

Business, Confusing, Jack, Polite, Way

Same Author Quotes

It takes a deep commitment to change and an even deeper commitment to grow.

Commitment, Committed, Deep, Grow, Grows

Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat.

Controlled, Face, Failure, Inspiring, Life, Play

Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it.

Confidence, Inspirational, Know, Power, Show

If you can show me how I can cling to that which is real to me, while teaching me a way into the larger society, then and only then will I drop my defenses and hostility, and I will sing your praises and help you to make the desert bear fruit.

Cling, Drop, Real, Singing, Society, Teaching

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the bodiless heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.

Except, Glasses, Invisible, Life, Mirrors, Surroundings