Marcus Garvey Quotes

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.

Always try to associate with people from whom you can learn something. All the knowledge that you want is in the world, and all you have to do is go and seek it.

The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.

A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.

If we as a people realized the greatness from which we came we would be less likely to disrespect ourselves.

If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.

Intelligence rules the world, ignorance carries the burden.

If you get up everyday and you don't learn you are a fool

Do not remove the kinks from your hair--remove them from your brain.

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

The thing to do is to get organized; keep separated and you will be exploited, you will be robbed, you will be killed. Get organized and you will compel the world to respect you.

Take advantage of every opportunity; where there is none, make it for yourself.

Every man has a right to his own opinion. Every race has a right to its own action; therefore let no man persuade you against your will, let no other race influence you against your own.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!

To see your enemy and know him is a part of the complete education of man.

When all else fails to organize the people, conditions will.

Black men, you were once great; you shall be great again. Lose not courage or faith, go forward.

Be Black, buy Black, think Black, and all else will take care of itself.

Take advantage of every opportunity; where there is none, make it for yourself, and let history record that as we toiled laboriously and courageously, we worked to live gloriously.

She makes one happy, then miserable. You are to her kind, then unkind. Constant yet inconstant. Thus we have WOMAN. No real man can do without her.

If the Negro is not careful he will drink in all the poison of modern civilization and die from the effects of it.

Let us not try to be the best or worst of others, but let us make the effort to be the best of ourselves.

Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.

Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.

The pen is mightier than the sword, but the tongue is mightier than them both put together.

What you do to-day that is worthwhile, inspires others to act at some future time.

The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity.

The greatest possesion of man is character

The Greatest Weapon Used Against the Negro is Disorganization.

You must not mistake lip-service and noise for bravery and service.

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.

Progress is the attraction that moves humanity.

The whole world is run on bluff. No race, no nation, no man has any divine right to take advantage of others. Why allow the other fellow to bluff you?

Lose not courage, lose not faith, go forward.

Black men of Carthage, Ethiopia, of Timbuktu and Alexandria gave the likes of civilization to this world

I am not opposed to the white race as charged by my enemies. I have no time to hate any one. All my time is devoted to the up-building and development of the Negro Race.

They subjugate first, if the weaker peoples will stand for it; then exploit, and if they will not stand for SUBJUGATION nor EXPLOITATION, the other recourse is EXTERMINATION.

At no time within the last five-hundred years can one point to a single instance of the Negro as a race of haters.

A man's bread and butter is only insured when he works for it.

A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact.

In a world of wolves one should go armed, and one of the most powerful defensive weapons within the reach of Negroes is the practice of race first in all parts of the world.

Be as proud of your race today as our as our fathers were in days of yore. We have beautiful history, and we shall create another in the future that will astonish the world.

Unite all people of African ancestry of the world to one great body to establish a country and absolute government of their own.

I have no desire to take all black people back to Africa; there are blacks who are no good here and will likewise be no good there.

Hungry men have no respect for law, authority or human life.

Take the kinks out your mind, not your hair.

If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.

Whatsoever things common to man, that man has done, man can do.

Our success educationally, industrially and politically is based upon the protection of a nation founded by ourselves. And the nation can be nowhere else but in Africa.

I pray God that we shall never use our physical prowess to oppress the human race, but we will use our strength, physically, morally and otherwise to preserve humanity and civilization.