Invisible Man Quotes

Quote 1: "I am one of the most irresponsible beings that ever lived. Irresponsibility is part of my invisibility; any way you face it, it is a denial. But to whom can I be responsible, and why should I be, when you refuse to see me?" Prologue, pg. 14

Quote 2: "'To Whom It May Concern: . . . Keep This Nigger-Boy Running.'" Chapter 1, pg. 33

Quote 3: "had a feeling that your people were somehow connected with my destiny. That what happened to you was connected with what would happen to me . . ." Chapter 2, pg. 41

Quote 4: "to repress not only his emotions but his humanity . . . [to be] invisible, a walking personification of the Negative, . . . the mechanical man!" Chapter 3, pg. 94

Quote 5: "The white folk tell everybody what to think -- except men like me. I tell them" Chapter 6, pg. 143

Quote 6: "I felt that even when they were polite they hardly saw me, that they would have begged the pardon of Jack the Bear, never glancing his way if the bear happened to be walking along minding his business. It was confusing. I did not know if it was desirable or undesirable . . ." Chapter 8, pg. 168

Quote 7: "a former student of ours (I say former because he shall never, under any circumstances, be enrolled as a student here again) who has been expelled for a most serious defection from our strictest rules of deportment." Chapter 9, pg. 190

Quote 8: "the friends of all common people" Chapter 13, pg. 282

Quote 9: "His name was Tod Clifton, he believed in Brotherhood, he aroused our hopes and he died." Chapter 21, pg. 459

Quote 10: "yassuh" Chapter 23, pg. 509

Quote 11: "America is woven of many strands; I would recognize them and let it so remain. It's 'winner take nothing' that is the great truth of our country or of any country. Life is to be lived, not controlled; and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. Our fate is to become one, and yet many -- This in not prophecy, but description." Epilogue, pg. 577