Invisible Man

"One's dignity may be assaulted, but cannot be taken away unless it is surrendered."

"I had to race against the turning of the wheel."

"You navigate by landmarks and signs which people misread."

"I could not recognize my own face in the mirror."

"Perhaps that's the real invisibility, not that people don't see you, but that they see you and don't believe you."

"The clock ticked on endlessly, and I sat listening to the darkness."

"I felt suddenly that my grandfather had placed upon us the burden of his living."

"You take my meaning: that very universality which you would have me belie by implication."

"America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so continue."

"I am not ashamed of having been a fool."

"Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping."

"Our task is not to struggle against all realities, but to see, to accept and to understand them."

"I decided I was not going to be rushed into a wrong decision."

"The mind that has no interest in anything permanent is the mind of a creature without purpose."

"Being invisible gives one a slightly different sense of time, you're never quite on the beat."

"I am invisible, not because of any biochemical accident, but because of the peculiar disposition of the eyes of those who look at me."

"I write these words from the darkness, but I am no longer invisible to myself."

"Perhaps visibility is not the answer but understanding one's invisibility is."

"I am no longer ashamed of my invisibility but have embraced it."

"The riots of Harlem were my baptism into truth."

"I had confused visibility with value, presence with worth."

"What does it mean to exist when no one acknowledges your existence?"

"In the basement, I found the freedom that daylight denied me."

"The voice I thought was mine had been given to me by others."

"I had been a puppet dancing to other men's strings."

"To speak truth to power requires first being seen."

"I realized that my invisibility was both curse and gift."

"The mask I wore became indistinguishable from my face."

"In moments of true clarity, I understood my own complexity."

"The streets taught me what the university could not."