Love Quote by James A. Baldwin

Glory is the most dangerous bait because it can masquerade as virtue. Baldwin’s line turns the usual moral hierarchy inside out: the “noblest spirit” isn’t immune to vanity; it’s uniquely vulnerable to it. Not the petty, reality-TV hunger for attention, but the high-minded craving to be seen as righteous, historic, indispensable. Baldwin is locating temptation precisely where liberals like to park their innocence: in the realm of ideals.

The phrasing is clinical, almost anthropological. “Attracted” suggests magnetism, a force that bypasses good intentions. “Love of glory” isn’t just ambition; it’s the desire for consecration, for a public narrative that confirms you were right, brave, ahead of your time. That’s why this works as a Baldwinism: it indicts without shouting. It implies that the drive to do good can quietly depend on an audience, and that moral language can become a costume for ego.

Context matters. Baldwin wrote in the long shadow of American racial mythology and mid-century political theater, where “great men” and “great causes” were routinely used to sanitize cruelty. He watched how movements, institutions, and individuals could turn suffering into a stage and treat recognition as a moral paycheck. The subtext: nobility doesn’t cancel appetite; it refines it. The more elevated your self-concept, the more intoxicating it is to be crowned for it.

Read today, the line lands like a warning about activism-as-brand and virtue-as-performance. Baldwin isn’t dismissing glory; he’s exposing its seduction, especially for those convinced they’re above seduction.