Kwame Quotes

I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me.

Those who would judge us merely by the heights we have achieved would do well to remember the depths from which we started.

Action without thought is empty. Thought without action is blind.

Capitalism is a development by refinement from feudalism, just as feudalism is development by refinement from slavery . Capitalism is but the gentlemen's method of slavery.

It is far better to be free to govern or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anybody else

The forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater than the superimposed influences that keep us apart.

The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked-up with the total liberation of the African Continent

All people of African descent, whether they live in North or South America, the Caribbean, or in any part of the world are Africans and belong to the African nation.

We have awakened. We will not sleep anymore. Today, from now on, there is a new African in the world!

Freedom is not something that one people can bestow on another as a gift. Thy claim it as their own and none can keep it from them.

Revolutions are brought about by men, by men who think as men of action and act as men of thought.

We face neither East nor West: we face forward.

But I think that of all the literature that I studied, the book that did more than any other to fire my enthusiasm was The Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey published by his wife.

At long last, the battle has ended! And thus, Ghana, your beloved country is free forever!

A State in the grip of neo-colonialism is not master of its own destiny. It is this factor which makes neo-colonialism such a serious threat to world peace.

The best way of learning to be an independent sovereign state is to be an independent sovereign state.

The traditional face of Africa includes an attitude towards man which can only be described as being socialist

Long before many of us were even conscious of our own degradation, these men [Marcus Garvey and W. E. B. DuBois] fought for African national and racial equality.

Africa is one continent, one people and one nation

Conversation doesn’t have to lead to consensus about anything especially not values; it’s enough that it helps people get used to one another

We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility.

The masses of the people of Africa are crying for unity.

In life, the challenge is not so much to figure out how best to play the game; the challenge is to figure out what game you're playing

A value is like a fax machine: it’s not much use if you’re the only one who has one.

If someone hates you, they won't ask you for things.

Sometimes your gift takes you to a place that your character is not prepared to handle.

That’s all you really hope for from a book – that it’s going to resonate with young people and empower them in some way. I believe poetry can get kids reading.

My dream in growing up in the city of Detroit was to be Mayor. At the family picnics from the time I was 9-years-old that's what I told people I was going to be. The mayor of the city of Detroit.

My kids want to go back to Detroit everyday, that's their home. They want to be there. But Detroit is going through something that I don't want to be a part of.

You can't have a dream come true if you don't have a dream. You can't write a book if you don't write.

This is the United States of America and unfortunately, race still matters to a lot of people. The evil head of racism doesn't hide, it sticks its head up.

I was never fearful or scared. I knew God had me and my wife and children knew it as well so we just marched.

I am most interested in people. I try to capture their complexity and contradiction and beauty. It does not matter where they are from.

This poet is a griot in search of a village.

I should have blown this mic like I said I might Got the force of 20 men like a Jedi Knight.

What I learned in politics (is that) it's a very enslaving place to be. It's hard to be free in politics and if the search for your spirit is to be free, it's hard.

Cultures are made of continuities and changes, and the identity of a society can survive through these changes. Societies without change aren't authentic; they're just dead

This is my first summer [with] no trouble. I ain't go to jail for speeding. Didn't go to jail for DUI. I didn't break my foot. I didn't break my other foot. I'm one step ahead of the game already.

Personality is a person among persons. There is no personality of one man on a desert island.

HIV is no respecter of persons. Any of us could find ourselves with the disease, and then what? We tend to stigmatize as a way to deceive ourselves about our invincibility. But it is a delusion.

What is happening in Detroit is not good so I don't even want to be a part of that, but there is something on the other side that I may want to be a part of so I don't know yet.

I didn't want to be president; I didn't want to be governor; I didn't want to be a congress person. I just wanted to be mayor of the city of Detroit. I lived there my entire life.

The job of being president, understanding the particular policies that America has gotten itself into over the past 400 years.

I was building the plane while flying it in the first term.

If you draft me, you'll never regret it.

When people open up and share their stories, you have a responsibility to tell these truths truthfully and with the same quest for grace and beauty that you see in them.

All memory is fiction.

Maybe that is the power of poetry. It somehow transcends news cycles, and becomes a part of our collective imagination. That is the beauty of the art form I like to play with.

I believe that all fiction is personal and all writing is at some level personal.

Latino poets, are really having a significant impact on American poetics today.