“100+ Marcus Garvey Quotes” is a powerful collection of quotes from the renowned Jamaican-born activist, Marcus Garvey. With over a hundred quotes, this compilation reflects Garvey’s dedication to black empowerment, self-reliance, and Pan-Africanism. Each quote offers insights into his vision for a united African diaspora and his call for self-respect and self-determination. Whether you’re interested in history, civil rights, or simply appreciate the wisdom of a visionary leader, this anthology provides a compelling journey through Garvey’s words and his enduring impact on the fight for equality and justice..
Marcus Garvey Quotes
Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God’s grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom, and Life.
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.
We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind.
If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.
Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will.
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 good education is the greatest gift you can give yourself or anyone else.
Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.
Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.
The black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.
If you want to know the end, look at the beginning.
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.
I read and studied the Bible for many years. The Bible is the only book in existence that does not depreciate with age.
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 black man is not a brute because he is black, but because he is deprived of his natural rights.
Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.
We must canonize our own saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate to positions of fame and honor black men and women who have made their distinct contributions to our racial history.
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.
The whole world is run on bluff.
Take the kinks out of your mind, not your hair.
Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences.
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 greatest weapon used against the Negro is disorganization.
We are not engaged in domestic politics; we are international politicians. Our field of operations is the world; we must not confine ourselves to an American Negro program.
Intelligence rules the world, ignorance carries the burden.
Remove the kinks from your mind, not your hair.
Lift up yourselves, men, take yourselves out of the mire and hitch your hopes to the very stars themselves.
People without knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture are like a tree without roots.
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.
Education is the medium by which a people are prepared for the creation of their own particular civilization, and the advancement and glory of their own race.
The black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.
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 weapon used against the Negro is disorganization.
The only protection against INJUSTICE in man is POWER – PHYSICAL, FINANCIAL, AND SCIENTIFIC.
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, religiously, and otherwise is concerned.
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.
The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.
A race without authority and power is a race without respect.
The pen is mightier than the sword, but the tongue is mightier than them both put together.
The white man’s God and his devil have depicted the Negro as frightened by God and afraid of his devil..
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 reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact.
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.
Do not remove the kinks from your hair, remove them from your brain.
To be successful in business, a man must have imagination. He must see things in a vision, a dream of the whole thing..
You have a right to ask for your own good. You can ask for your own, if you ask in a righteous way.
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.
Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will.
The law is made by the white man and for him.
A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact.
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.
The only protection against INJUSTICE in man is POWER – PHYSICAL, FINANCIAL, AND SCIENTIFIC.
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 greatest weapon used against the Negro is disorganization.
Whatsoever things common to man, that man has done, man can do.
A wise man once said that ‘what you do not know is the only thing you own.’ That statement was never made truer than in the race question. You are not able to own what you do not know.
We must canonize our own saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate to positions of fame and honor black men and women who have made their distinct contributions to our racial history.
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 Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.
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.
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.
Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.
Men who are in earnest are not afraid of consequences.
The Negro has been looking for a black standard-bearer for four hundred years, and a black standard-bearer has come.
The great difficulty with the present condition is that you have to be ‘crazy’ to get the world to accept you.
I like honesty and fair play, I want to see a man get a square deal even if I do not agree with him. If he does not get it, I have no sympathy with the man who gets it for him.
Africa for the Africans… at home and abroad!
A man without confidence in himself is twice defeated in the race of life.
I read and studied the Bible for many years. The Bible is the only book in existence that does not depreciate with age.
The Negro is not quite black. The white man is not quite white. Men are not all good, nor are all bad.
You are not ready for any great achievement if you must always wait for somebody else to tell you what to do. You must get into the habit of doing things for yourself.
Lift up yourselves, men, take yourselves out of the mire and hitch your hopes to the very stars themselves.
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.
Be as proud of your race today as our fathers were in days of yore. We have a beautiful history, and we shall create another in the future that will astonish the world.
What you do today that is worthwhile, inspires others to act at some future time.
A reading man and woman is a ready man and woman, but a writing man and woman is exact.
The world is not prepared as yet to adjust itself to that bold type of man or woman, resolute enough to push on and conquer every difficulty, despite the opposition of the mass.
The Black man in Africa had mastered the arts and sciences. He knew the course of the stars in the universe before the man up in Europe knew that the earth wasn’t flat.
The Black skin is not a badge of shame but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.
Never allow anyone to convince you of inferiority.
Up, up, you mighty race! You can accomplish what you will.
A race that is solely dependent upon another for economic existence sooner or later dies.
Confidence is key. Sometimes, you need to look like you’re confident even when you’re not.
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.
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.
If the white man has the idea of a white God, let him worship his God as he desires. If the yellow man’s God is of his race let him worship his God as he sees fit. We, as Negroes, have found a new ideal. Whilst our God has no color, yet it is human to see everything through one’s own spectacles, and since the white people have seen their God through white spectacles, we have only now started out (late though it be) to see our God through our own spectacles.
You can’t make a race horse out of a jackass.
Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.
We must canonize our own saints, create our own martyrs, and elevate to positions of fame and honor black men and women who have made their distinct contributions to our racial history.
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 only protection against INJUSTICE in man is POWER – PHYSICAL, FINANCIAL, AND SCIENTIFIC.
A wise man once said that ‘what you do not know is the only thing you own.’ That statement was never made truer than in the race question. You are not able to own what you do not know.
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 with the race.
The race problem in America is the great paradox of this country’s history. How is it that a nation ‘conceived in liberty’ and ‘dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal’ should find it necessary to enslave, degrade, and segregate its black population?
The greatest weapon used against the Negro is disorganization.
If the enemy could only know that Marcus Garvey is but the John the Baptist of the new ideal, he would throttle it in its infancy.
A 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.
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.
Look to Africa, when a black king shall be crowned, for the day of deliverance is at hand!
Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.
When all else fails to organize the people, conditions will.
The great nations of the world are pulling and hauling at civilization, and the black man with his primitive intelligence is called upon to indicate the way.
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.
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.
The black man is the only one who can free himself.
Remove the kinks from your mind, not your hair.
If you want to be a race of people, a nation of people, you need your own culture.
I saw that even the most revolutionary among us had been unconscious in that great part, unconscious in their greatness and unconscious in their spirit of revolution.
The history of a movement, the history of a nation, the history of a race, is the guidepost of that movement’s destiny, that nation’s destiny, that race’s destiny.
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.
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.
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 Bible is one book. We as a people have to study it, and as we study it, we must live up to it.
Africa’s future is up to Africans.
A good leader can engage in a debate frankly and thoroughly, knowing that at the end he and the other side must be closer, and thus emerge stronger. You don’t have that idea when you are arrogant, superficial, and uninformed.
The world today is indebted to us for the benefits of civilization. They stole our arts and sciences from Africa.
The most intelligent men, like the strongest, find their happiness where others would find only disaster: in the labyrinth, in being hard with themselves and with others, in effort; their delight is in self-mastery; in them asceticism becomes second nature, a necessity, an instinct.
The black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.
There is no passion like that of a functionary for his function.
Those who are in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.
Without confidence, you are twice defeated in the race of life.
The Black man is the first man, the cream of the earth, the people that everything was started from, man himself.
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 to that which concerns you.
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.
The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different.
It is unfortunate that when we seek to have a flag, the only symbol to which we can look is a flag that has been drenched in our blood over the years.
You are the children of the people who have oppressed you. I have been oppressed. My children have been oppressed.
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.
God is man and man is God.
Up, you mighty race, accomplish what you will.
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.
You cannot build anything without money.
Whatsoever things common to man, that man has done, man can do.
