The Autobiography of Malcolm X Education Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)

Quote #10

"I am not ashamed to say how little learning I have had," Mr. Muhammad told me. "My going to school no further than the fourth grade proves that I can know nothing except the truth I have been taught by Allah. Allah taught me mathematics. He found me with a sluggish tongue, and taught me how to pronounce words." (12.102)

Mr. Muhammad had even less education than Malcolm X did. He stopped going to school in fourth grade. Why do you think he credits Allah for his education?

Quote #11

I would just like to study. I mean ranging study, because I have a wide-open mind. I'm interested in almost any subject you can mention. I know this is the reason I have come to really like, as individuals, some of the hosts of radio or television panel programs I have been on, and to respect their minds—because even if they have been almost steadily in disagreement with me on the race issue, they still have kept their minds open and objective about the truths of things happening in this world. Irv Kupcinet in Chicago, and Barry Farber, Barry Gray and Mike Wallace in New York—people like them. They also let me see that they respected my mind—in a way I know they never realized. The way I knew was that often they would invite my opinion on subjects off the race issue. Sometimes, after the programs, we would sit around and talk about all kinds of things, current events and other things, for an hour or more. (19.89)

In other parts of the book Malcolm X mentions religion and race as things that can unify people, but here we can see that a love of learning can transcend the boundaries of race.