50 Marcus Garvey Quotes

Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Mosiah Garvey (August 17, 1887 – June 10, 1940), was a Jamaican-born Black nationalist and leader of the Pan-Africanism movement, which sought to unify and connect people of African descent worldwide. Garvey was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA), through which he declared himself Provisional President of Africa.

Marcus Garvey Quote 1

“If we as a people realized the greatness from which we came we would be less likely to disrespect ourselves.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 2

“The world today is indebted to us for the benefits of civilization. They stole our arts and sciences from Africa. Then why should we be ashamed of ourselves?” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 3

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 4

“It falls to our lot to tear off the shackles that bind Mother Africa. Can you do it?” ― Marcus Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 5

“Africans are raising the cry of “AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS”, those at home and those abroad.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 6

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 7

“One God, One Aim, One Destiny. (Motto of the UNIA)” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 8

“Let the sky and God be our limit, and Eternity our measurement. There is no height to which we cannot climb by using the active intelligence of our own minds. Mind creates and as much as we desire in nature we can have through the creation of our own minds.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 9

“melanin currently worth over $380 a gram more than gold that makes Black people black;” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 10

“If death has power, then count on me in death to be the real Marcus Garvey I would like to be. I may come in an earthquake, or cyclone, or plague or pestilence, or as God would have me, then be assured that I shall never desert you and make your enemies triumph over you. Would I not go to hell a million times for you?” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 11

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 12

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 13

“Chance has never yet satisfied the hope of a suffering people.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 14

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 15

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 16

“The Black skin is not a badge of shame, but rather a glorious symbol of national greatness.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 17

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 18

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 19

“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.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 20

“be defeated; hence to me, to be once defeated is to find cause for an everlasting struggle to reach the top.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 21

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 22

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 23

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 24

“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.’”16” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 25

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 26

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 27

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 28

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 29

“If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. ” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 30

“With confidence, you have won even before you have started. ” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 31

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 32

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 33

“Some of us seem to accept the fatalist position, the fatalist attitude, that God accorded to us a certain position and condition, and therefore there is no need trying to be otherwise. The moment you accept such an attitude, the moment you accept such an opinion, the moment you harbor such an idea, you hurl an insult at the great God who created you, because you question Him for His love, you question Him for His mercy.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 34

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 35

“Do not remove the kinks from your hair – remove them from your brain.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 36

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 37

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 38

“Pay no attention to the man who criticizes unless he is doing something better than what he criticizes.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 39

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 40

“to be once defeated is to find cause for an everlasting struggle to reach the top.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 41

“great principles, great ideals know no nationality.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 42

“We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, for though others may free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is our only ruler; sovereign.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 43

“Liberate the minds of men and ultimately you will liberate the bodies of men.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 44

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 45

“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. ” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 46

“The pen is mightier than the sword, but the tongue is mightier than them both put together.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 47

“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 Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 48

“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 49

“The Negro will have to build his own industry, art, sciences, literature, and culture before the world will stop to consider him.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey

Marcus Garvey Quote 50

“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.” ― Marcus Mosiah Garvey