237 Quotes by Ralph Ellison

Yes, they think we're dumb. They call us the "common people." But I've been sitting here listening and looking and trying to understand what's so common about us. I think they're guilty of a gross mis-statement of fact-we are the uncommon people-

I've illuminated the blackness of my invisibility—and vice versa.

Dammit, white folk are always giving orders, it's a habit with them. Why didn't you make an excuse? You're black and living in the South-- did you forget how to lie?

Call me Jack-the-Bear, for I am in a state of hibernation.

For now I had begun to believe, despite all the talk of science around me, that there was a magic in spoken words.

Times are grave and you seem very indignant.

I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.

If the word has the potency to revive and make us free, it has also the power to bind, imprison and destroy.