I believe that there will be ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the system of exploitation. I believe that there will be that kind of clash, but I don’t think it will be based on the colour of the skin. Malcolm X, viz Malcolm X online
I don’t even call it violence when it’s in self-defense; I call it intelligence. Malcolm X, speech to Peace Corps Workers December 1964
If you have no critics you’ll likely have no success. Malcolm X
If you’re born in America with a black skin, you’re born in prison. Malcolm X, interview June 1963
I learned early that crying out in protest could accomplish things. My older brothers and sister had started to school when, sometimes, they would come in and ask for a buttered biscuit or something and my mother, impatiently, would tell them no. But I would cry out and make a fuss until I got what I wanted. I remember well how my mother asked me why I couldn’t be a nice boy like Wilfred; but I would think to myself that Wilfred, for being so nice and quiet, often stayed hungry. So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise. Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1965
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. Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1965
I just don’t believe that when people are being unjustly oppressed that they should let someone else set rules for them by which they can come out from under that oppression. 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, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1965
I’m nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But when you drop that violence on me, then you’ve made me go insane, and I’m not responsible for what I do. And that’s the way every Negro should get. Any time you know you’re within the law, within your legal rights, within your moral rights, in accord with justice, then die for what you believe in. But don’t die alone. Let your dying be reciprocal. This is what is meant by equality. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Malcolm X, speech Cleveland, Ohio, 3rd April 1964
My alma mater was books, a good library ... I could spend the rest of my life reading, just satisfying my curiosity. Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1965
No, I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver — no, not I. I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare. Malcolm X, speech Cleveland, Ohio, 3rd April 1964
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. Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1965
That’s not a chip on my shoulder. That’s your foot on my neck. Malcolm X, cited Fighting the Power: Britain After George Floyd, BBC 2020
The ability to read awoke inside of me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. Malcolm X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X
The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities – he is only reacting to 400 years of the conscious racism of the American whites. Malcolm X, letter from Hajj
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, cited Malcolm X Speaks
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. 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
The question tonight, as I understand it, is, ‘The Negro Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here? or What Next?’ In my little humble way of understanding it, it points toward either the ballot or the bullet. Malcolm X, speech Cleveland, Ohio, 3rd April 1964
There can be no black-white unity until there is first some black unity. There can be no workers’ solidarity until there is first some racial solidarity. We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves. One can’t unite bananas with scattered leaves. Malcolm X, A Declaration of Independence 12 March 1964
There has got to be a change. The people in power have misused it. Malcolm X, Malcolm X at Oxford University, 1964
There is no better [alt. teacher] than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time. Malcolm X
The white liberal differs from the white conservative only in one way; the liberal is more deceitful, more hypocritical than the conservative. Both want power but the white liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negroes friend and benefactor. Malcolm X, speech 1963
This is why I say it’s the ballot or the bullet. It’s liberty or it’s death. It’s freedom for everybody, or it’s freedom for nobody. Malcolm X, speech Detroit, 1964
To have once been a criminal is no disgrace. To remain a criminal is the disgrace. 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. Malcolm X
Truth is on the side of the oppressed today. It’s against the oppressor. Malcolm X, cited George Breitman’s Malcom X Speaks, 1965
We are African, and we happened to be in America. We’re not American. We are people who formerly were Africans who were kidnapped and brought to America. Our forefathers weren't the Pilgrims. We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. The rock was landed on us. We were brought here against our will. We were not brought here to be made citizens. We were not brought here to enjoy the constitutional gifts that they speak so beautifully about today. Malcolm X, speech Founding Rally of the Organisation of Afro-American Unity 28th June 1964
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, variant cited By Any Means Necessary, 1970
We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level — to the level of human rights. Whenever you are in a civil-rights struggle, whether you know it or not, you are confining yourself to the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam. No-one from the outside world can speak out in your behalf as long as your struggle is a civil-rights struggle. Civil rights comes within the domestic affairs of this country … You spend so much time barking up the civil-rights tree, you don’t even know there's a human-rights tree on the same floor. Malcolm X, speech Cleveland, Ohio, 3rd April 1964