“Negroes are Americans and their destiny is the country’s destiny. They have no other experience besides their experience on this continent and it is an experience which cannot be rejected, which yet remains to be embraced. If, as I believe, no American Negro exists who does not have his private Bigger Thomas living in the skull, then what most significantly fails to be illuminated here is the paradoxical adjustment which is perpetually made, the Negro being compelled to accept the fact that this dark and dangerous and unloved stranger is part of himself forever. Only this recognition sets him in any wise free and it is this, this necessary ability to contain and even, in the most honorable sense of the word, to exploit the “nigger,” which lends to Negro life its high element of the ironic and which causes the most well-meaning of their American critics to make such exhilarating errors when attempting to understand them.””
Quotes by Thomas James Wise
“A wise son makes a glad father, But a foolish son is the grief of his mother.””
“Trust the Lord Even before Trusting Oneself (03 March) Bible Passage: Proverbs 3:5-8 "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones." ------------------------------------------------ John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." When the Apostle John wrote the above verse, he used a Greek word that means much more than what many people might think. It is easy to read his words and conclude that a person will be saved if he or she simply believes that Jesus once existed or even that He still exists. But that is not correct. The Greek word that he used for "believeth" actually means to commit to and to trust in the object of one's belief. So "believeth" does mean to believe that Jesus once existed and that He still exists. But it also means to commit oneself to Him and to trust in Him.””
Thomas James Wise was a notable bibliophile and a controversial figure in the literary world, primarily recognized for his extensive collection of rare books, known as the Ashley Library, which is now...