Eldridge Cleaver

We shall have our manhood. We shall have it or the earth will be leveled by our attempts to gain it.

— Eldridge Cleaver

The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.

— Eldridge Cleaver

All the gods are dead except the god of war.

— Eldridge Cleaver

If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America.

— Eldridge Cleaver

Americans think of themselves collectively as a huge rescue squad on twenty-four-hour call to any spot on the globe where dispute and conflict may erupt.

— Eldridge Cleaver

It is not an overstatement to say that the destiny of the entire human race depends on what is going on in America today. This is a staggering reality to the rest of the world; they must feel like passengers in a supersonic jet liner who are forced to watch helplessly while a passel of drunks, hypes, freaks, and madmen fight for the controls and the pilot’s seat.

— Eldridge Cleaver

Pig power in America was infuriating, but pig power in the communist framework was awesome and unaccountable.

— Eldridge Cleaver

I crossed the tracks and sought out White prey. I did this consciously, deliberately, willfully, methodically [...] Rape was an insurrectionary act. It delighted me that I was defying and trampling upon the White man's law [...] and that I was defiling his women [...]

— Eldridge Cleaver

We would go out and ambush cops, but if we got caught we would blame it on them and claim innocence. I did that personally in the case I was involved in.… We went after the cops that night, but when we got caught we said they came after us. We always did that. When you talk about the legacy of the '60s, that's one legacy. That's what I try to address, because it helped to distort the image of the police, but I've come to the point where I realize that our police department is necessary.

— Eldridge Cleaver

I can understand J. Edgar Hoover, because he wasn't inaccurate.… He said that we were the main threat. We were trying to be the main threat. We were trying to be the vanguard organization. J. Edgar Hoover was an adversary, but he had good information. We were plugged into all of the revolutionary groups in America, plus those abroad. We were working hand-in-hand with communist parties here and around the world, and he knew that.

— Eldridge Cleaver

You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem.

— Eldridge Cleaver

Too much agreement kills a chat.

— Eldridge Cleaver

Too much agreement kills a chat.

— Eldridge Cleaver