Harry Belafonte Quotes

Quotes about:

• Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s anchor. We are the compass for humanity’s conscience.

  Harry Belafonte

  Artist, Anchors, Civilization

  106 Copy quote

• Each and every one of you has the power, the will and the capacity to make a difference in the world in which you live in

  Harry Belafonte

  Inspirational, Change, Power

  FaceBook post by Harry Belafonte from Aug 09, 2012

  124 Copy quote

• When I was born, I was colored. I soon became a Negro. Not long after that I was black. Most recently I was African-American. It seems we're on a roll here. But I am still first and foremost in search of freedom.

  Harry Belafonte

  Long, African American, Black

  83 Copy quote

• If I've impacted on one heart, one mind, one soul, and brought to that individual a greater truth than that individual came into a relationship with me having, then I would say that I have been successful.

  Harry Belafonte

  Success, Heart, Soul

  67 Copy quote

• Art in its highest form is art that serves and instructs society and human development.

  Harry Belafonte

  Art, Creativity, Society

  46 Copy quote

• In the gun game, we are the most hunted. The river of blood that washes the streets of our nation flows mostly from the bodies of our black children.

  Harry Belafonte

  Children, Gun, Blood

  Harry Belafonte’s Speech Accepting NAACP Spingarn Medal, www.democracynow.org. February 18, 2013.

  92 Copy quote

• You can cage the singer but not the song.

  Harry Belafonte

  Music, Song, Singers

  64 Copy quote

• I am who I am despite what America has put before me. I am who I am despite the obstacles that we have all faced based upon race and based upon social and spiritual humiliation.

  Harry Belafonte

  Spiritual, Who I Am, America

  "Actor-activist Harry Belafonte, Part 1". "The Tavis Smiley Show" with Tavis Smiley, www.pbs.org. November 30, 2011.

  63 Copy quote

• The human spirit is resilient and truth - no matter how long you abuse it and how long you try to crush it - will, as Dr. King would say, rise up again, and in the final analysis will prevail.

  Harry Belafonte

  Crush, Kings, Long

  Source: www.yesmagazine.org

  6 Copy quote

• As a matter of fact, compromise is what oppression feeds on.

  Harry Belafonte

  Matter, Facts, Compromise

  Source: www.yesmagazine.org

  17 Copy quote

• From the point of view of the poor, the hungry, the disenfranchised, the wretched of the Earth... there will never be peace until their condition has been alleviated and until their humanity is in full bloom.

  Harry Belafonte

  Views, Humanity, Earth

  Source: www.yesmagazine.org

  4 Copy quote

• Anti-democracy...is a virus that exists, and pro-democracy is the antibody to that virus, and I think we have to become vigilant, and we have to stay on top of the issues of democracy and freedom.

  Harry Belafonte

  Freedom, Thinking, Issues

  7 Copy quote

• Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy.

  Harry Belafonte

  Democracy, Dissent

  42 Copy quote

• We [Americans] move about the world arrogantly, calling wars when we want, overthrowing governments when we want. There is a price to be paid for it -- look at 9/11. [That] wasn't just bin Laden. Bin Laden didn't come from the abstract. He came from somewhere, and if you look where ... you'll see America's hand of villainy.

  Harry Belafonte

  War, Moving, Government

  55 Copy quote

• These children and their parents know that getting an education is not only their right, but a passport to a better future - for the children and for the country.

  Harry Belafonte

  Education, Country, Children

  42 Copy quote

• Many who have nothing opposed to the few who have everything, and as long as these disparities remain, as long as these distances remain between people and forces, I think we'll be in a perpetual state of upheaval.

  Harry Belafonte

  Distance, Thinking, Long

  "Actor-activist Harry Belafonte, Part 1". "The Tavis Smiley Show" with Tavis Smiley, www.pbs.org. November 30, 2011.

  45 Copy quote

• America can no longer afford to be as arrogant as we've been. We can no longer exempt ourselves from the global family of concern.

  Harry Belafonte

  America, Arrogant, Concern

  Source: www.yesmagazine.org

  13 Copy quote

• When I was 40 and looking at 60, it seemed like a thousand miles away. But 62 feels like a week and a half away from 80. I must now get on with those things I always talked about doing but put off.

  Harry Belafonte

  Half, Week, Miles

  Jet Magazine, January 8, 1990.

  9 Copy quote

• Do not submit. It is extremely critical that repression be met full head-on and that it be resisted with every fiber in our being. There is just absolutely no compromise that can be made with it.

  Harry Belafonte

  Fiber, Compromise, Being There

  Source: www.yesmagazine.org

  4 Copy quote

• I don't know what America has really learned. We are too quick to do what's expedient on behalf of our culture of greed and hedonism. We're quite prepared to go to conditions of tyranny in order to sustain that culture, and we do it in the name of democracy, when nothing could be more undemocratic. We do it in the name of saving the values of our society, when the way we behave corrupts those values. We do it in the name of God in whom we believe, when in fact we have corrupted our own vision of the Christian journey.

  Harry Belafonte

  Christian, Believe, Journey

  Source: www.yesmagazine.org

  13 Copy quote

• Wherever I found resistance to oppression, whether in Africa, in Latin America, certainly here in America in the South, I joined that resistance. I took part in the labor movement, in social movements, in the church community. I felt that it was the honorable thing to do and still do.

  Harry Belafonte

  Latin, America, Community

  Source: www.yesmagazine.org

  5 Copy quote

• Where is the raised voice of black America? Why are we mute?

  Harry Belafonte

  Voice, America, Black

  "Harry Belafonte in guns plea: 'Where is the raised voice of black America?'" by Paul Harris, www.theguardian.com. February 2, 2013.

  30 Copy quote

• In poor environment, I find great inspiration. Many of the men and women whom I admire as artists, the things they write, the songs they sing, the admission is filled with inspired moments to overcome oppression.

  Harry Belafonte

  Song, Inspiration, Writing

  Source: www.pbs.org

  27 Copy quote

• We Have Got To Bring Corporate America To Its Knees

  Harry Belafonte

  America, Knees, Globalization

  13 Copy quote

• Through electing officials that will protect the Constitution and commit themselves to the rights of the people and the health of the nation, we will be able to ensure that no group of ideologues and no private sector institution can coopt our rights, take us into senseless wars and steal the nation from its people.

  Harry Belafonte

  War, Rights, People

  16 Copy quote

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