# Quote — Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice

> I had gotten caught with a shopping bag full of Marijuana, a shopping bag full of love - I was in love with the weed and I did not for one minute think that anything was wrong with getting high. I had been getting high for four or five years and was convinced, with the zeal of a crusader, that marijuana was superior to lush - yet the rulers of the land seemed all to be lushes. I could not see how they were more justified in drinking than I was in blowing the gage. I was a grasshopper, and it was natural that I felt myself to be unjustly prosecuted.

- Author: [Eldridge Cleaver](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver.md)
- Book: [Soul on Ice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver/soul-on-ice.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Eldridge_Cleaver#Soul_on_Ice_(1968)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver/soul-on-ice/i-had-gotten

## More from this book

> Somehow I arrived at the conclusion that, as a matter of principle, it was of paramount importance for me to have an antagonistic, ruthless attitude toward white women. The term outlaw appealed to me and at the time my parole date was drawing near, I considered myself to be mentally free - I was an "outlaw." I had stepped outside of the white man's law, which I repudiated with scorn and self-satisfaction. I became a law unto myself- my own legislature, my own supreme court, my own executive.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver/soul-on-ice/somehow-i-arrived.md)

> If communists are in power, they enforce laws designed to protect their system, their way of life. To them, the horror of horrors is the speculator, that man of magic who has mastered the art of getting something with nothing and who in America would be a member in good standing of his local Chamber of Commerce. "The people, " however are nowhere consulted, although everywhere everything is done always in their name ostensibly for their betterment, while their real-life problems go unsolved. "The people" are a rubber stamp for the crafty and sly. And no problem can be solved without taking the police department and the armed forces into account. Both kings and bookies understand this, as do first ladies and common prostitutes.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver/soul-on-ice/if-communists-are.md)

> The black man's interest lies in seeing a free and independent Vietnam, a strong Vietnam which is not the puppet of international white supremacy. If the nations of Asia, Latin America, and Africa are strong and free, the black man in America will be safe and secure and free to live in dignity and self-respect.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eldridge-cleaver/soul-on-ice/the-black-mans.md)