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

Categorized in : Moving War Government

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

change power inspirational

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

Harry Belafonte

anchors artist civilization

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

gun children blood

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

african-american black long

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

soul success heart

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

who-i-am spiritual america

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

Harry Belafonte

creativity society art

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

Harry Belafonte

compromise matter facts

You can cage the singer but not the song.

Harry Belafonte

singers music song

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 long thinking

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

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

arrogant concern america

Bring it on. Dissent is central to any democracy.

Harry Belafonte

dissent democracy

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

inspiration writing song

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

Harry Belafonte

black voice america

Terrorism is in many, many ways the final utterance of voices unheard.

Harry Belafonte

utterance finals voice

Our foreign policy has made a wreck of this planet. I'm always in Africa... And when I go to these places I see American policy written on the walls of oppression everywhere.

Harry Belafonte

oppression wrecks wall

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

journey christian believe

I would hope with all my heart, that Jay Z not take personally what was said... I would like to take this opportunity to say to Jay Z and Beyonce: I’m wide open, my heart is filled with nothing but hope and the promise that we can sit and have a one-on-one to understand each other.

Harry Belafonte

heart opportunity promise

Since I have escaped the harshness of the economic bounds of poverty, I have stayed very connected to it spiritually. I reside and live and go and socialize and exist among those who suffer daily from the relationship that they have to poverty, Black men and women who are incarcerated. Actually, all people who are incarcerated, not just Black.

Harry Belafonte

black men people