Famous Harry Belafonte Quotes to Inspire and Empower You
by Menaga K
Updated Aug 17, 2023
Harry Belafonte Quotes
Harry Belafonte is a legendary singer, actor, and civil rights activist whose words have inspired generations of people. He has been an influential figure in the fight for social justice and equality, using his voice and platform to speak out against racism, poverty, and oppression. Harry Belafonte's quotes are powerful and thought-provoking, touching on a range of topics such as love, freedom, justice, and activism. His words are a testament to the power of the human spirit and a reminder that we all have the ability to make a positive difference in the world. Whether you're looking for motivation, inspiration, or a new perspective, Harry Belafonte's quotes are sure to leave an impact.
Harry Belafonte's words not only reflect his artistic talent but also his passion for advocating social justice and equality. His quotes serve as a reminder of the power of music, love, and unity to bring about positive change in the world.
Harry Belafonte Famous Quotes
“Art in its highest form is art that serves and instructs society and human development.”
1. “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.”
2. “Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. We are civilization’s anchor. We are the compass for humanity’s conscience.”
3. “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.”
4. “You can cage the singer but not the song.”
5. “John say’s it’s James who started first, James tells the story in reverse. I drag my belt from off me waist, you should have heard dem screaming round de place.
6. “Fascism is fascism. Terrorism is terrorism. Oppression is oppression.”
7. “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.”
8. “I’ve always been supportive of the right of Israel as a state, and I’ve always fought against anti-Semitism, even in my own community.”
9. “Art in its highest form is art that serves and instructs society and human development.”
10. “The Catholic Church had strict racial attitudes and intolerance for anybody who was not Catholic. When I look at a lot of Black ministers and what went on in the Black church, I was more caught up with those who were in Cadillacs and shiny suits than I was with those who were Kingian in their style.”
11. “Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy.”
12. “Colin Powell’s committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture.”
13. “Why are we mute? Where are our leaders, our legislators? Where is the church?”
14. “Turning against the church I also had to turn against a lot of the teachings of people in my family who were very much of the church and caught in it, and every time I turned to find where resides the good in the church, all I saw was the demonic, the Lucifer of the journey.”
15. “When you grow up, son, never ever go to bed at night knowing that there was something you could have done during the day to strike a blow against injustice and you didn’t do it.”
Harry Belafonte Inspirational Quotes
“I come from a sense of struggle, a sense of using the instruments that were given to me to manipulate the environment in which I found myself, and joined up with those who are equally as skillful at manipulating that environment, as was I.”
1. “I’m very familiar with poverty. I find it easy to be with, whether I’m in America or in Africa or in Asia. Wherever I go and find the environment of those who are living in poverty and resisting poverty is a great in which I have great comfort.”
2. “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.”
3. “I come from a sense of struggle, a sense of using the instruments that were given to me to manipulate the environment in which I found myself, and joined up with those who are equally as skillful at manipulating that environment, as was I.”
4. “I didn’t like The Wiz and it wasn’t because black people were doing it. I didn’t like The Wiz because it was a badly made movie off a classic. Why are you remaking something unless you have something better in mind?”
5. “After all, Paul Robeson said, ‘Artists are the radical voice of civilization.’ Each and every one of you in this room, with your gifts and your power and your skills, could perhaps change the way in which our global humanity mistrusts itself. Perhaps we as artists and as visionaries, for what’s better in the human heart and the human soul, could influence citizens everywhere in the world to see the better side of who and what we are as a species.”
6. “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.”
7. “I’m called a folk singer, and I’m not too sure about that. I went about my life approaching music not from the point of view of a singer, but from the point of view of an actor. That’s how I first started to sing.”
8. “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.”
9. “Where is the raised voice of black America? Why are we mute?”
10. “To really know what progress we’re making for children, we have to know how many children we have to begin with. The simple act of counting is an expression of a country’s intent to take care of its people.”
11. “We Have Got To Bring Corporate America To Its Knees.”
12. “This generosity that has been offered to the United States says very much about the Venezuelan spirit.”
13. “Poverty continues to exist. Its appearance seems to be relentless in evidencing itself not only to all the things we experience here in America, but certainly what we see globally. And I don’t see anywhere any philosophical analysis that suggests we know how to get out of this.”
Top 10 Harry Belafonte Quotes
“I am a man who perceives life in a certain way, a man who rejects things that defecate on humankind, who rejects anything that will not give people room for dissent.”
1. “The sham engineers of the music industry, who steer the wheels of public opinion, are driving the good features of calypso into the ground. I shudder to think what these greedy men will eventually do to this true art form.”
2. “You can be arrested and not charged. You can be arrested and have no right to counsel.”
3. “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.”
4. “The only thing left for Barack Obama to do is to work like a third world dictator and just put all these guys in jail.”
5. “The USA has more people in prison that any other country, including countries with much larger populations. 13% of the population is black but 80% of the people in prison are black, mostly for soft crimes.”
6. “I don’t find inspiration on Wall Street. I don’t find that in Beverly Hills. I don’t find that in places where opportunity resides unbridled, and I think the real creative energy and the real juice is in where people are caught, in the economic abyss.”
7. “I think America offers a dream that cannot be fulfilled as easily anywhere else in the world as it could be fulfilled here. Although oppression was common to all of us, those styles of oppression gave us the opportunity to see the world in dimensions we didn’t quite see growing up in any one place.”
8. “We’ve come to this dark time in which the new Gestapo of Homeland Security lurks here, where citizens are having their rights suspended.”
9. “If you believe in justice, if you believe in democracy, if you believe in people’s rights, if you believe in the harmony of all humankind – then you have no choice but to back Fidel Castro as long as it takes!”
10. “I am a man who perceives life in a certain way, a man who rejects things that defecate on humankind, who rejects anything that will not give people room for dissent.”
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Harry Belafonte Quotes - FAQs
Harry Belafonte is a legendary singer, actor, and civil rights activist whose words have inspired generations of people.
He has been an influential figure in the fight for social justice and equality, using his voice and platform to speak out against racism, poverty, and oppression.