Selected Quotes by Marcus Garvey
Marcus Garvey- Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr. (August 17, 1887 – June 10, 1940) was a Jamaican political activist. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL, commonly known as UNIA).
He even declared himself Provisional President of Africa. Ideologically a black nationalist and a Pan-Africanist, his ideas came to be known as Garveyism.
Quotes by Marcus Garvey:
“I regard the Klan, the Anglo-Saxon clubs and White American societies, as far as the Negro is concerned, as better friends of the race than all other groups of hypocritical whites put together.”
Marcus Garvey, Society
“Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.”
Marcus Garvey, Society
“No one knows when the hour of Africa’s Redemption cometh. It is in the wind. It is coming. One day, like a storm, it will be here.”
Marcus Garvey, Society
“Melanin currently worth over $380 a gram more than gold that makes Black people black.”
Marcus Garvey, Society
“Africa has produced countless numbers of men and women, in war and in peace, whose lustre and bravery outshine that of any other people. Then why not see good and perfection in ourselves?”
Marcus Garvey, Society
“Africans are raising the cry of “AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS”, those at home and those abroad.”
Marcus Garvey, Society
“Somebody said (but if it were not said, then I say it now), that " the laws of our civilization have but one interpretation for the poor and ignorant and for those of wealth and power, there are many interpretations, hence the poor are generally convicted on the one, while the rich are freed on the many interpretations.”
Marcus Garvey, Society
“If the Negro is not careful he will drink in all the poison of modern civilization and die from the effects of it.”
Marcus Garvey, Society
“The race needs workers at this time, not plagiarists, sopists and mere imitators; but men and women who are able to create, to originate and improve, and thus make an independent racial contribution to the world and civilisation.”
Marcus Garvey, Society
“Prohibition is to abstain from intoxicating liquor, as it makes us morbid and sometimes drunk. But we get drunk every day, nevertheless, not so much by the strength of what we sip from the cup, but that which we eat, the water we drink, and the air we inhale, which at fermentation conspire at eventide to make us so drunk and tired that we lose control of ourselves and fall asleep. Everybody is a drunkard, and if we were to enforce real prohibition we should all be dead.”
Marcus Garvey, Society
“we were like crabs in a barrel, that none would allow the other to climb over, but on any such attempt all would continue to pull back into the barrel the one crab that would make the effort to climb out.”
Marcus Garvey, Society
“It is hoped that when the time comes for American and West Indian Africans to settle in Africa, they will realize their responsibility and their duty. It will not be to go to Africa for the purpose of exercising an over-lordship over the natives, but it shall be the purpose of the Universal Negro Improvement Association to have established in Africa that brotherly cooperation which make the interest of the African native and the American and West Indian African one and the same, that is to say, we shall enter into a common partnership to build up Africa in the interest of our race.”
Marcus Garvey, Society, Goals
“Do not remove the kinks from your hair - remove them from your brain.”
Marcus Garvey, Goals
“Let no voice but your own speak to you from the depths. Let no influence but your own raise you in time of peace and time of war. Hear all, but attend only that which concerns you.”
Marcus Garvey, Goals
“Was the crying voice from the grave that said, ‘Garvey, we have suffered for 250 years for your day and for your time; we expect something from you at this hour.’”
Marcus Garvey, Goals
“It falls to our lot to tear off the shackles that bind Mother Africa. Can you do it?”
Marcus Garvey, Goals
“For five years the Universal Negro Improvement Association has been advocating the cause of Africa for the Africans-that is, that the Negro peoples of the world should concentrate upon the object of building up for themselves a great nation in Africa.”
Marcus Garvey, Goals
“Whipped. It annoys me to be defeated; hence to me, to be once defeated is to find cause for an everlasting struggle to reach the top.”
Marcus Garvey, Goals
“To have built up a new organization, which was not purely political, among Negroes in America was a wonderful feat, for the Negro politician does not allow any other kind of organization within his race to thrive.”
Marcus Garvey, Goals
“The Negro will have to build his own industry, art, sciences, literature, and culture before the world will stop to consider him.”
Marcus Garvey, Goals
“Hail! United States of Africa-free! Country of the brave black man's liberty; State of greater nationhood thou hast won, A new life for the race is just begun.”
Marcus Garvey, Freedom
“Climb ye the heights of liberty and cease not in well doing until you have planted the banner of the Red, the Black and the Green on the hilltops of Africa.”
Marcus Garvey, Freedom, Goals
“Men, there is much to live for, and there is much to die for. The man, the race of nation that is not prepared to risk life itself for the possession of an ideal, shall lose that ideal. If you, I repeat, must be free, you yourselves must strike the blow.”
Marcus Garvey, Freedom, Goals
“Ideals of liberty , freedom and righteousness do not prosper in the 20th century excepts they coincide with oil, rubber, gold, diamond, coal, iron, sugar, coffee, and such other minerals and products desired by the privileged, capitalists and leaders who control the system of government.”Marcus Garvey, Freedom, Society
“If I die in Atlanta my work shall then only begin, but I shall live, in the physical or spiritual to see the day of Africa’s glory.”
Marcus Garvey, Belief
“One God, One Aim, One Destiny. (Motto of the UNIA)”
Marcus Garvey, Belief, Goals
“Who to tell what tomorrow will bring forth? Did they not laugh at Moses, Christ and Mohammed? Was there not a Carthage, Greece and Rome? We see and have changes every day, so pray, work, be steadfast and be not dismayed.”
Marcus Garvey, Belief, Goals
“Intelligence rules the world, ignorance carries the burden. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind.”
Marcus Garvey, Intelligence/Wisdom
“The pen is mightier than the sword, but the tongue is mightier than them both put together.”
Marcus Garvey, Intelligence/Wisdom
“Never forget that intelligence rules the world and ignorance carries the burden. Therefore, remove yourself as far as possible from ignorance and seek as far as possible to be intelligent.”
Marcus Garvey, Intelligence/Wisdom, Goals
“We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind.”
Marcus Garvey, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
“Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.”
Marcus Garvey, Intelligence/Wisdom, Freedom
“Having had the wrong education as a start in his racial career, the Negro has become his own greatest enemy. Most of the trouble I have had in advancing the cause of the race has come from Negroes. Booker Washington aptly described the race in one of his lectures by stating that we were like crabs in a barrel, that none would allow the other to climb over, but on any such attempt all would continue to pull back into the barrel the one crab that would make the effort to climb out. Yet, those of us with vision cannot desert the race, leaving it to suffer and die.”
Marcus Garvey, Intelligence/Wisdom, Society
“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.”
Marcus Garvey, Intelligence/Wisdom, Society
“Pay no attention to the man who criticizes unless he is doing something better than what he criticizes.”
Marcus Garvey, Criticism
“If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.”
Marcus Garvey, Life
“great principles, great ideals know no nationality.”
Marcus Garvey, Life
“You at this time can only be destroyed by yourselves, from within and not from without. You have reached the point where the victory is to be won from within and can only be lost from within.”
Marcus Garvey, Life, Success
“Every student of political science, every student of political economy, every student of economics knows that the race can only be saved through a solid industrial foundation; that the race can only be saved through political independence. Take away industry from a race, take away political freedom from a race and you have a slave race.”
Marcus Garvey, Government, Business, Society
“There is no strength but that which is destructive, because man has lost his virtues, and only respects force, which he himself cannot counteract.”
Marcus Garvey, Strength
“If you haven't confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.”