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James Baldwin on fatherhood, character, and how to live

4 sourced quotes from James Baldwin, each with the original work, the year, and links to a primary or scholarly source you can check yourself. Selected for what they say to a man raising children.

“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
Nobody Knows My Name, 1961
“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing…”
Notes on the House of Bondage, The Nation (November 1, 1980), 1980
“To be loved, baby, hard, at once, and forever, to strengthen you against the loveless world... you must survive because we love you, and for the…”
The Fire Next Time, "My Dungeon Shook — Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation", 1962
“It will be hard, James, but you come from sturdy, peasant stock, men who picked cotton and dammed rivers and built railroads, and, in the teeth of…”
The Fire Next Time, "My Dungeon Shook — Letter to My Nephew", 1962

The right words for exactly where you are right now.

DadVice matches wisdom like this to the real situations of fatherhood — the hard conversation, the long night, the moment you do not know what to say. Every quote is sourced. No motivational filler.

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Works quoted here: Nobody Knows My Name, Notes on the House of Bondage, The Nation (November 1, 1980), The Fire Next Time, "My Dungeon Shook — Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation", The Fire Next Time, "My Dungeon Shook — Letter to My Nephew".