Bob Marley's Quotes

Sourced
One love, one heart, let's get together and feel alright.
"One Love" (cowritten with Curtis Mayfield).
Don't worry about a thing, 'cos every little thing is gonna be alright.
"Three Little Birds"
Life is worth much more than gold.
"Jamming"
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind. Have no fear for atomic energy, cos none of them can stop the time.
"Redemption Song"
They say: only the fittest of the fittest should survive, stay alive!
"Could you be loved"
Truth is the light / Never give up the fight.
Final jamming of Live at the Roxy
Judge not, before you judge yourself. Judge not, if you're not ready for judgement, whoa oh oh
Judge Not

Disputed
Some famous songs were sung by Marley, but writing credits were actually given to his close friend Vincent Ford.

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
No Woman, No Cry
Ev'rything's gonna be alright
So, no woman, no cry
No Woman, No Cry
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.
"Positive Vibration" a song sung by Marley on the album Rastaman Vibration (1976).
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.

Attributed
A little wine sometimes. Spirits are bad, alcohol wrong. Herb does grow.
All dese governments and dis an' dat, dese people that say they're here to help, why them say you cannot smoke the herb? Herb... herb is a plant, ya know? And when me check it, me can't find no reason. All them say is, 'it make ya rebel'. AGAINST WHAT?
Bob Marley isn't my name. I don't even know my name yet.
Don't gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver and gold.
Don't let them fool ya or even try to school ya.
Every man got a right to decide his own destiny.
Every man think his burden is the heaviest, who feels it knows it, lord.
Facts an' facts, an' t'ings an t'ings: dem's all a lotta fuckin' bullshit. Hear me! Dere is no truth but the one truth, an' that is the truth of Jah Rastafari.
He who feels it, knows it more.
Herb is the unifier of the people.
How good and how pleasant it would be before God and man, to see the unification of all Africans.
I believe in freedom for everyone, not just the black man.
I don't have prejudice against myself. My father was a white and my mother was black. Them call me half-caste or whatever. Me don't dip on nobody's side. Me don't dip on the black man's side nor the white man's side. Me dip on God's side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.
I drive a jeep. An old jeep, so nobody will say I'm driving a BMW anymore. I couldn't stand that BMW, ha ha ha! BMW make pure trouble!
I handle fame by not being famous...I'm not famous to me.
I have a BMW. But only because BMW stands for Bob Marley and The Wailers, and not because I need an expensive car.
I have got a running stream of love you see. So no matter what stages.. they put us through, we'll never be blue.
I know what I am and that is a Rastaman.
I love the development of our music, that's what I really dig about the whole thing. How we've tried to develop, y'know? It grows. That's why every day people come forward with new songs. Music goes on forever.
I want to say 'I shot the police' but the government would have made a fuss so I said 'I shot the sheriff' instead... but it's the same idea: justice.
I've been here before and will come again, but I'm not going this trip through.
If I am guilty I will pay.
If you are the big tree, we are the small axe, ready to cut you down.
If you get down and you quarell everyday, you're saying prayers to the devil, I say.
In the abundance of water, the fool is thirsty.
It not we against the system, it the system against we.
Jah show every mon him hand, and Jah has show I mine.
Life and Jah are one in the same. Jah is the gift of existence. I am in some way eternal, I will never be duplicated. The singularity of every man and woman is Jah's gift. What we struggle to make of it is our sole gift to Jah. The process of what that struggle becomes, in time, the Truth.
Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality.
Love would never leave us alone.
Man is a universe within himself.
Me got no education, me got inspiration. If I was educated I'd be a damn fool.
Me not on the black man's side, me not on the white man's side. Me on God's side
Me only have one ambition, y'know. I only have one thing I would really like to see happen. I'd like to see mankind live together - black, white, Chinese, everyone - that's all.
Money can't buy life
Music and herb go together. It's been a long time now I smoke herb. From 1960s, when I first start singing.
My music fights against the system that teaches to live and die.
My music will go on forever. Maybe it's a fool say that, but when me know facts me can say facts. My music will go on forever.
No man can lead man, we have to have unity.
One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.
Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you're living?
Overcome the devils with a thing named love.
People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people.
Politics no interest me. Dem Devil business. Dem a play with people's minds. Never play with people's minds.
Positive vibrations man. That's what makes it work. That's reggae music. You can't look away because it's real. You listen to what I sing because I mean what I sing, there's no secret, no big deal. Just honesty, that's all. (1977)
Puss and dog, they get together, what's wrong with loving one another?
Rise O fallen fighters, rise and take your stance again, He who fight and run away, Live to fight another day.
Some people got everything, some people got nothing, some people got ways and means, some people got no hope it seems... we're the survivors.
Stand up for your rights.
The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.
The more people smoke herb, the more Babylon fall.
They don't want to see us unite. All they want us to do is keep on fussing and fighting, they don't want to see us live together. All they want us to do is keep on killing one another.
To make music is a life that I have to live.
Until the philosophy which hold one race superior and another inferior is finally discredited and abandoned...WAR! So that is prophecy, and everyone know that is truth. And it came out of the mouth of Rastafari.
We should really love each other in peace and harmony, instead we're fussin' n fighting like we ain't supposed to be.
Well, me don't swim too tough so me don't go in the water too deep.
When Bob's talking, have no doubt, seen?
When one door is closed don't you know another is open.
When the race gets hard to run. It means you just can't take the pace.
When you smoke herb it reveals you to yourself. All the wickedness you do is revealed by the herb. It is your conscience and gives you a clearer picture of yourself.
You ain't gonna miss your water until your well runs dry.
You can fool some people sometimes, but you can't fool all the people all the time. ** Usually attributed to Abraham Lincoln or P. T. Barnum)
You mean they can tell God that it's not legal?
When told that it was illegal to grow marijuana, that is created by God.
The lips of the righteous teach many, But fools die for want of wisdom.
Biblical quote