"There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully.

Our religion teaches us to

be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand
on you, send him to the cemetery. That's a good religion."
-- "Message to the Grass Roots," speech, Nov. 1963, Detroit (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 1,
1965).
QUOTES BY MALCOLM X
"A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything."
"We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us."
"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."
"My alma mater was books, a good library... I could spend the rest of my life reading, just
satisfying my curiosity."
"Stumbling is not falling."
"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."
"They put your mind right in a bag, and take it wherever they want."
"We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us."
"Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the
constant victim of brutal attacks."
"A race of people is like an individual man; until it uses its own talent, takes pride in its own
history, expresses its own culture, affirms its own selfhood, it can never fulfill itself."
"I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and
the basic causes that produce it, they'll create their own program, and when the people create a
program, you get action."
"If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary."
"I feel like a man who has been asleep somewhat and under someone else's control. I feel that
what I'm thinking and saying is now for myself. Before it was for and by the guidance of Elijah
Muhammad. Now I think with my own mind, sir!"
"The thing that you have to understand about those of us in the Black Muslim movement was
that all of us believed 100 percent in the divinity of Elijah Muhammad. We believed in him. We
actually believed that God, in Detroit by the way, that God had taught him and all of that. I
always believed that he believed in himself. And I was shocked when I found out that he himself
didn't believe it."
"I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that 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 systems of exploitation."
"It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That's
the only thing that can save this country."
-- February 19, 1965 (2 days before he was murdered by Nation of Islam followers)
"Without education, you're not going anywhere in this world."
"...I shall never rest until I have undone the harm I did to so many well-meaning, innocent
Negroes who through my own evangelistic zeal now believe in him even more fanatically and
more blindly than I did."
-- on those he encouraged to follow Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad
"When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will
not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the
next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing
in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything
under the sun to acquire . . . or preserve his freedom."
"You don't have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent
human being."
"Dr. King wants the same thing I want. Freedom."
"I want Dr. King to know that I didn't come to Selma to make his job difficult. I really did come
thinking I could make it easier. If the white people realize what the alternative is, perhaps they
will be more willing to hear Dr. King."
-- in a conversation with Mrs. Coretta Scott King.
"I am not a racist. I am against every form of racism and segregation, every form of
discrimination. I believe in human beings, and that all human beings should be respected as such,
regardless of their color."