Bob Marley

Jamaican reggae musician (1945–1981)

Robert Nesta Marley (6 February 194511 May 1981), more famously known as Bob Marley, was a Jamaican singer, guitarist, songwriter, and social activist. His vision of "One World, One Love," is a dream that inspired many.

One love, one heart,
Let's get together and feel alright.

Quotes

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Judge not, if you're not ready for judgment.
 
Truth is the light,
So you never give up the fight.
  • All dese governments and dis this and that, these people that say they're here to help, why them say you cannot smoke the herb? Herb... herb is a plant, you know? And when me check it, me can't find no reason. All them say is, 'it make you rebel'. Against what?
    • As recorded in filmed interview (1979) with Dylan Taite in Aotearoa, New Zealand
  • Alcohol make you drunk, man. It don't make you meditate, it just make you drunk. Herb is more a consciousness.
    • As recorded in filmed interview (1979) with Dylan Taite in Aotearoa, New Zealand
  • We don't have education, we have inspiration; if I was educated I would be a damn fool.
    • As recorded in Time Will Tell (1992), a documentary by Declan Lowney
  • Today, people struggle to find what's real. Everything has become so synthetic that a lot of people, all they want is to grasp onto hope.
    • As quoted in Rolling Stone's The Immortals (2004) "Bob"

Song lyrics

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Don't worry about a thing,
'Cos every little thing is gonna be alright.
 
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.
 
They say: only the fittest of the fittest shall survive, stay alive!
  • One good thing about music, when it hits you feel no pain.
    • Trenchtown Rock (single, 1970)
  • Some people say great God come from the sky take away everything and make everybody feel high, but if you know what life is worth, you will look for yours on earth.
  • A hungry mob is an angry mob.
    • Them Belly Full (But We Hungry), from the album Natty Dread (1974)
  • Never make a politician grant you a favour
    They will always want to control you forever.
  • Truth is the light
    So you never give up the fight.
  • Don't worry about a thing,
    'Cos every little thing is gonna be alright.
  • Your life is worth much more than gold.
  • Excuse me while I light my spliff (spliff)
    Good God I gotta' take a lift (lift)
    From reality I just can't drift (drift)
    That's why I am staying with this riff (riff)


    Take it easy, easy skanking
    Got to take it easy, easy skanking.
  • Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny.
  • Life is one big road with lots of signs,
    So when you riding through the ruts,
    Don't you complicate your mind
    Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy
    Don't bury your thoughts; put your vision to reality
    • "Wake Up and Live!” on Survival (1979)
  • In the abundance of water a fool is thirsty.
    • Rat Race, from the album Rastaman Vibration
  • When one door is closed, many more is open.
    • Coming in from the Cold, from the album Confrontation
  • It is better to live on the house top
    than to live in a house full of confusion.
    • Running Away, from the album Kaya

Judge Not (single, 1961)

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  • Judge not, before you judge yourself.
    Judge not, if you're not ready for judgment.
  • The Road of life is rocky and you may stumble too,
    so while you talk about me, someone else is judging you.
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.
  • Won't you help to sing,
    These songs of freedom?

    'Cause all I ever had,
    Redemption songs.
    • Redemption Song
  • We JAH people can make it work.
    • Work
  • Two thousand years of history Black History could not be wiped away so easily.
    • Zion Train
  • And what has been hidden from the wise and the prudent been revealed in the mouth of the toddlers.
  • Who are you to judge the life I live?
    I know that I'm not perfect and that I don't claim to be,
    so before you point your fingers make sure your hands are clean.
  • They say: only the fittest of the fittest shall survive, stay alive!
    • Could You Be Loved


Disputed

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Say you just can't live that negative way
You know what I mean
Make way for the positive day
Cause it's a new day.
Some famous songs were made popular by Marley, but writing credits were actually given to his close friend Vincent Ford. Ford did not write these lyrics, Marley did, but gave Ford writing credits so he could use the royalty money to help pay for his Trenchtown soup kitchen. [citation needed]
  • Say you just can't live that negative way
    You know what I mean
    Make way for the positive day
    Cause it's a new day.

No Woman, No Cry, from the album Natty Dread (1974)

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  • Good friends we have had, oh good friends we've lost along the way
    In this bright future you can't forget your past
    So dry your tears I say
    No woman, no cry
    No woman, no cry
    Little darlin' don't shed no tears
    No woman, no cry
  • Ev'rything's gonna be alright
    So, no woman, no cry.


Misattributed

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Quotes about Marley

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I am Boutros Boutros-Ghali; put down your gun and listen to Bob Marley.
  • I carried Bob Marley’s Redemption Song to every meeting I had with a politician, prime minister, or president. It was for me a prophetic utterance or as Bob would say "the small ax that could fell the big tree". The song reminded me that freedom always comes with a cost, but for those who would prepare to pay it, maybe "emancipation from mental slavery" would be our reward.
    • Bono, as quoted in Marley Legend: An Illustrated Life of Bob Marley (2006) by James Henke, pg. 57
  • You just mentioned Bob Marley —  I can remember when I was in college, listening — and not agreeing with his whole philosophy necessarily, but raising my awareness of how people outside of our country were thinking about the struggles for jobs and dignity, and freedom.
  • He had this idea. It was kind of a virologist idea. He believed that you could cure racism and hate... literally cure it, by injecting music and love into people's lives. When he was scheduled to perform at a peace rally, a gunman came to his house and shot him down. Two days later he walked out on that stage and sang. When they asked him why — He said, "The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness."
  • The U.S. empire rests on a grisly foundation: the massacre of millions of indigenous people, the stealing of their lands, and following this, the kidnapping and enslavement of millions of black people from Africa to work that land. Thousands died on the seas while they were being shipped like caged cattle between continents. "Stolen from Africa, brought to America"-Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier" contains a whole universe of unspeakable sadness. It tells of the loss of dignity, the loss of wilderness, the loss of freedom, the shattered pride of a people. Genocide and slavery provide the social and economic underpinning of the nation whose fundamental values reject hate, murderers, and evil.
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