"One of the first things I think young people, especially nowadays, should learn is how to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself. Then you can come to an intelligent decision for yourself. If you form the habit of going by what you hear others say about someone, or going by what others think about someone, instead of searching that thing out for yourself and seeing for yourself, you will be walking west when you think you're going east, and you will be walking east when you think you're going west."
"A ballot is like a bullet. You don't throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that target is not within your reach, keep your ballot in your pocket."
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Source: The Ballot or The Bullet (Cleveland Version). Malcolm X's speech at Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio (April 3, 1964) as quoted in Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements edited by George Breitman (pp. 23-44), 1965.
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