Malcolm X, born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, was a prominent African American civil rights leader, human rights activist, and influential orator. He rose to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s as a vocal advocate for the rights of African Americans, challenging racial segregation and advocating for self-determination and empowerment.
His journey from a troubled youth to a charismatic and galvanizing figure in the civil rights movement is one of transformation and enlightenment. Malcolm X’s speeches and writings continue to echo through time, embodying a spirit of resilience, self-awareness, and a relentless pursuit of justice. In this collection of quotes, we delve into the powerful and thought-provoking words of Malcolm X, exploring his insights on race, freedom, empowerment, education, and the struggle for equality.
Each quote is a window into his beliefs and philosophies, which continue to inspire and educate generations, encouraging critical reflection and advocating for a more equitable society.
- Goal Quotes by Malcolm X
- Human Rights Quotes by Malcolm X
- Malcolm X’s Life Quotes
- Quotes about Teaching by Malcolm X
- Quotes about Unity by Malcolm X
- Quotes about Enemy by Malcolm X
- Malcolm X Quotes about War and Freedom
Goal Quotes by Malcolm X
Integration is the method toward obtaining that goal. And what he Negro leader has done is gotten himself wrapped up in the method and has forgotten what the goal is.
Malcolm X
Now the goal of Dr. Martin Luther King is to give Negroes a chance to sit in a segregated restaurant beside the same white man who has brutalized them for four hundred years.
Malcolm X
That’s where Dr. [Martin Luther] King is mixed up. His goals should be the solution of the problem of the black man in America.
Malcolm X
The goal – is the dignity of the black man in America. He wants respect as the human being. He wants recognition as a human being.
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.
Malcolm X
Human Rights Quotes of Malcolm X
The religion of Islam actually restores one’s human feelings, human rights, human incentives, human, his talent.
Malcolm X
We are fighting for the right to live as free humans in this society. In fact, we are actually fighting for rights that are even greater than civil rights and that is human rights.
Malcolm X
We declare our right on this earth…to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary.
Malcolm X
Malcolm X’s Life Quotes
Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Malcolm X
How can anyone be against love?
Malcolm X
If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.
Malcolm X
My Alma mater was books, a good library… I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity.
Malcolm X
So early in my life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.
Malcolm X
Quotes about Teaching by Malcolm X
A segregated school system produces children who, when they graduate, they do with crippled minds.
Malcolm X
I think as an intelligent person you would agree that when you are teaching among oppressed people that they should be relieved of their oppression not 100 or 10 years from now, but right now, you’re going to find your talk is going to fall upon sympathetic ears.
Malcolm X
I think teaching a man to hate himself is much more criminal than teaching a man to hate someone else.
Malcolm X
The mother is the first teacher of the child. The message she gives that child, that child gives to the world.
Malcolm X
They call me “a teacher, a fomenter of violence.” I would say point blank, “That is a lie. I’m not for wanton violence, I’m for justice.”
Malcolm X
Unity Quote by Malcolm X
There can be no black-white unity until there is first some black unity.
Malcolm X
We do not condemn the preachers as an individual but we condemn what they teach. We urge that the preachers teach the truth, to teach our people the one important guiding rule of conduct – unity of purpose.
Malcolm X
We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity.
Malcolm X
Quotes about Enemy by Malcolm X
Anytime you have to rely upon your enemy for a job you’re in bad shape.
Malcolm X
Don’t you run around here trying to make friends with somebody who’s depriving you of your rights. They’re not your friends, no, they’re your enemies. Treat them like that.
Malcolm X
Everybody has a God and believes that his God will deliver him and protect him from his enemies!
Malcolm X
Never allow your enemies to educate your children.
Malcolm X
The common enemy is the white man.
Malcolm X
MalcolmX Quotes about War and Freedom
[Negro] should realize that he is living in a war zone, and he is at war with an enemy that is as vicious and criminal and inhuman as any war-making country has ever been.
Malcolm X
A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything.
Malcolm X
Any time a negro community lives under fear that its churches are going to be bombed, then they have to realize they’re living in a war zone.
Malcolm X
You’d have civil war. You’d have a race war in this country.
Malcolm X
A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire, or preserve his freedom.
Malcolm X
After you get your freedom, your enemy will respect you.
Malcolm X
If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary.
Malcolm X
Nobody can give you freedom. Nobody can give you equality or justice or anything. If you’re a man, you take it.
Malcolm X
You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
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.
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.
Malcolm X
Famous Quotes of MalcolmX
Any way, any form necessary to defend himself; Negro should reserve the right to do that just the same as others have the right to do it.
Malcolm X
Anytime you tell a man to turn the other cheek or to be nonviolent in the face of a violent enemy, you’re making that man defenseless. You’re robbing him of his God-given right to defend himself.
Malcolm X
At the same time Reverend Galamison policy is intelligent enough where he can’t be used to attack me.
Malcolm X
I admire the, the stand of China and the stand of Mao Tse- tung, but I can’t admire with respect the stand of, of Nehru in India. I just can’t do it.
Malcolm X
I don’t think that anyone has been really created more by the white press than the civil right leaders.
Malcolm X
I go for Mao Tse-tung much more than, than Nehru because I think that Nehru brought his country up in a beggar’s role.
Malcolm X
I myself have never been concerned with whether we are considered known or unknown. It’s no problem of ours.
Malcolm X
I was in prison and I was an atheist. I didn’t believe in anything.
Malcolm X
Most of these other negro leaders who are supposedly integrationists aren’t that intelligent [like Reverend Galamison].
Malcolm X
The American system itself is incapable. It is as incapable of producing freedom for the Afro-American as the system of a chicken is of producing a duck egg.
Malcolm X
There are many white people in this country who realize that the system itself – as it is constructed – is not so constructed that it can produce freedom and equality for the negro, and the system has to be changed.
Malcolm X
To me, political action involves making the politician who represents us know that he either produces or he is out, and he’s out one way or another.
Malcolm X
When the whites themselves are attacked, they believe in defending themselves and things of that sort.
Malcolm X
Explore the wisdom and vision of civil rights icon Malcolm X through his powerful quotes. Gain insights into equality, justice, and empowerment from his thought-provoking words.