Marcus Garvey Quotes

We must give up the silly idea of folding our hands and waiting on God to do everything for us. If God had intended for that, then he would not have given us a mind. Whatever you want in life, you must make up your mind to do it for yourself.

There is no force like success, and that is why the individual makes all effort to surround himself throughout life with the evidence of it; as of the individual, so should it be of the nation.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

I know no national boundary where the Negro is concerned. The whole world is my province until Africa is free.

You may call me a Klansman if you will, but, potentially, every white man is a Klansman, as far as the Negro in competition with whites socially, economically and politically is concerned, and there is no use lying.

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

Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.

No race has the last word on culture and on civilization. You do not know what the black man is capable of; you do not know what he is thinking and therefore you do not know what the oppressed and suppressed Negro, by virtue of his condition and circumstance, may give to the world as a surprise.

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

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

The traitor of other races is generally confined to the mediocre or irresponsible individual, but, unfortunately, the traitors among the Negro race are generally to be found among the men with the highest place in education and society, the fellows who call themselves leaders.

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.

I like honesty and fair play.

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

It is unfortunate that we should find ourselves at this time the only disorganized group. Others have had the advantage of organization for centuries, so what seems to them unnecessary, from a racial point of view, becomes necessary to us, who have had to labor all along under the disadvantage of being scattered without a racial aim or purpose.

There shall be no solution to this race problem until you, yourselves, strike the blow for liberty.

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

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.

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

The Greatest Weapon Used Against the Negro is Disorganization.

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

Progress is the attraction that moves humanity.

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

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.

Intelligence rules the world, ignorance carries the burden.

I read "Up From Slavery" and then my dream - if I may so call it - of being a race leader dawned.

Look to Africa, for there a king will be crowned.

Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will.

Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences.

Africa for the Africans... at home and abroad!

Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm.

Lose not courage, lose not faith, go forward.

God and Nature first made us what we are, and then out of our own created genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow always that great law. Let the sky and God be our limit and Eternity our measurement.