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. Thats a good religion.
Author : Malcolm X .
Book Reference : from 'Message to the Grass Roots', speech, Nov. 1963, Detroit
Comments :
(published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 1, 1965)]


In my 39 years on this earth, the Holy city of Makkah had been the first time I had ever stood before the Creator of all and felt like a complete human being.
Author : El Hajj el Malik al Shabbaz (Malcolm X)



You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
Author : El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X)



I know that societies often have killed people who have helped to change those societies. And if I can die having brought any light, having exposed any meaningful truth that will help destroy the racist cancer that is malignant in the body of America, then, all credit is due to Allah. Only the mistakes have been mine.
Author : El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcolm X)
Comments : (last words of his autobiography)



Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)



I am a Muslim and . . . my religion makes me be against all forms of racism. It keeps me from judging any man by the color of his skin. It teaches me to judge him by his deeds and his conscious behavior. And it teaches me to be for the rights of all human beings, but especially the Afro-American human being, because my religion is a natural religion, and the first law of nature is self-preservation.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



Truth is on the side of the oppressed.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



Early in life I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



History is a people's memory, and without a memory, man is demoted to the lower animals.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



Let's cool it brothers . . . Spoken to his assassins, three men who stabbed him 16 times.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)




You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or says it.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



Brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: I just can't believe that everyone in here is a friend and I don't want to leave anybody out.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



Speaking like this doesn't mean we are anti-white, but it does mean we're anti-exploitation, we're anti-degradation, we're anti-oppression.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



We are not fighting for integration, nor are we fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as human beings. We are fighting for . . . human rights.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)




We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



We didn't land on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock landed on us.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)




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.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965



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.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



If you're not ready to die for it, put the word 'freedom' out of your vocabulary.
Author :El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



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!
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



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.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



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.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



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)
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



Without education, you're not going anywhere in this world.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)


...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
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



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.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



You don't have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



Dr. King wants the same thing I want. Freedom.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



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.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



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.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Comments : American political activist, civil rights leader (1925-1965)



The common goal of 22 million Afro-Americans is respect as human beings, the God-given right to be a human being. Our common goal is to obtain the human rights that America has been denying us. We can never get civil rights in America until our human rights are first restored. We will never be recognized as citizens there until we are first recognized as humans. (Aug. 25 1964).
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Book Reference : Racism: the Cancer that is Destroying America, in Egyptian Gazette
Comments : QUOTES FROM ARTICLES AND SPEECHES



You can't separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has his freedom.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Book Reference : Prospects for Freedom in 1965
Comments : Speech, Jan. 7 1965, New York City (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 12, 1965).



The Negro revolution is controlled by foxy white liberals, by the Government itself. But the Black Revolution is controlled only by God.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Book Reference : Speech, Dec. 1, 1963, New York City.



I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Book Reference : Speech, Dec. 12 1964, New York City.



It's just like when you've got some coffee that's too black, which means it's too strong. What do you do? You integrate it with cream, you make it weak. But if you pour too much cream in it, you won't even know you ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it puts you to sleep.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Book Reference : Message to the Grass Roots
Comments : speech, Nov. 1963, Detroit (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 1, 1965).




Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner. You must be eating some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Book Reference : The Ballot or the Bullet
Comments : Speech, April 3 1964, Cleveland, Ohio (published in Malcolm X Speaks, ch. 3, 1965).



If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.
Author : El Malik el Shabbaz (Malcolm X)
Book Reference : Speech, Nov. 1963, New York City.




Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient holy land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the holy scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colors.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964.


I have been blessed to visit the holy city of Makkah; I have made my seven circuits around the Ka'aba, led by a young Mutawwaf (guide) named Muhammad; I drank water from the well of the Zamzam. I ran seven times back and forth between the hills of mount al-Safa and al-Marwa. I have prayed in the ancient city of Mina, and I have prayed on mount Arafat.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964.



There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white and non-white.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964



America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered white - but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors together, irrespective of their color.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964.



You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964.



During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug - while praying to the same God - with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964.



We were truly all the same (brothers) - because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964.




I could see from this, that perhaps if white Americans could accept the Oneness of God, then perhaps, too, they could accept in reality the Oneness of Man - and cease to measure, and hinder, and harm others in terms of their "differences" in color.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964.



With racism plaguing America like an incurable cancer, the so-called "Christian" white American heart should be more receptive to a proven solution to such a destructive problem. Perhaps it could be in time to save America from imminent disaster - the same destruction brought upon Germany by racism that eventually destroyed the Germans themselves.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964.



Each hour here in the holy land enables me to have greater spiritual insights into what is happening in America between black and white. The American Negro never can be blamed for his racial animosities - he is only reacting to four hundred years of the conscious racism of the American whites. But as racism leads America up the suicide path, I do believe, from the experiences that I have had with them, that the whites of the younger generation, in the colleges and universities, will see the handwriting on the walls and many of them will turn to the spiritual path of truth - the only way left to America to ward off the disaster that racism inevitably must lead to.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964.



Never have I been so highly honored. Never have I been made to feel more humble and unworthy. Who would believe the blessings that have been heaped upon an American Negro? A few nights ago, a man who would be called in America a white man, a United Nations diplomat, an ambassador, a companion of kings, gave me his hotel suite, his bed.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964.



Never would I have even thought of dreaming that I would ever be a recipient of such honors - honors that in America would be bestowed upon a King - not a Negro.
Author : Malcolm X (al-Hajj, Malik al-Shabazz)
Comments : Letter to his assistants in Harlem during his pilgrimage to Makkah in April of 1964.


Have I gotten any threats? All I get is threats. I get at least six or seven a day.
Author : Betty Shabazz, in an interview shortly before Malcolm's murder
Extra : QUOTES ABOUT MALCOLM X