There is no person that has influenced music more than Bob Marley. He was a visionary and a genius who was able to take traditional Jamaican music and make it something that the world could relate to.
Marley started as an entrepreneur, with his first business venture was selling homemade jewelry as a child. He started his musical career by forming The Wailers with friends Bunny Livingston and Peter Tosh.
The group quickly became popular on the island of Jamaica, and in 1963, they played their first show in America at Carnegie Hall in New York City. They were very successful but had trouble securing financial support from outside of Jamaica for their records because they refused to put on suits or play cover songs like so many other artists did at the time.
His legacy continues to grow with each new generation of fans that are introduced to his music. His art has been embraced by millions of people worldwide in many different languages and cultures for its uniquely authentic voice of incomparable originality. Simply put: Marley’s music has stood the test of time.
Here are 120 inspiring quotes by Bob Marley to change your perspective on life
“Just can’t live that negative way… make way for the positive day.” – Bob Marley
“Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I’m not perfect — and I don’t live to be — but before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean.”
“Open your eyes, look within. Are you satisfied with the life you’re living?” – Bob Marley
“You’re not supposed to feel down over whatever happen to you. I mean, you’re supposed to use whatever happen to you as some type of upper, not a downer.” – Bob Marley
“The good times of today are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.” – Bob Marley
“Live for yourself and you will live in vain; Live for others, and you will live again.” – Bob Marley
“Don’t worry about a thing, every little thing is gonna be alright.” – Bob Marley
“You just can’t live in that negative way, make way for the positive day.”
“Beginnings are usually scary, and endings are usually sad, but its everything in between that makes it all worth living.” – Bob Marley
“Better to die fighting for freedom than be a prisoner all the days of your life.” – Bob Marley
“Every time I plant a seed, He say kill it before it grow, he say kill it before they grow.” – Bob Marley
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.”
“When one door is closed, don’t you know, another is open.” – Bob Marley
“Money is numbers and numbers never end. If it takes money to be happy, your search for happiness will never end.”
“I no have education. I have inspiration. If I was educated I would be a damn fool.”
“Your life is worth much more than gold.”
“Some will hate you pretend they love you now then behind they try to eliminate you.”
“The day you stop racing is the day you win the race.”
“I’ve been here before and will come again, but I’m not going this trip through.”
“I don’t believe in death, neither in flesh nor in spirit.”
“The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.”
“I no have education. I have inspiration. If I was educated, I would be a damn fool.”
“The biggest coward is a man who awakens a women’s love with no intention of loving her.”
“I don’t know how to live good. I only know how to suffer.”
“She may not be the most popular or prettiest but if you love her and she makes you smile… What else matters?”
“Overcome the devils with a thing called love.”
“Don’t worry about a thing, every little thing is gonna be alright.”
“Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.” – Bob Marley
“love the life you live. live the life you love.” – Bob Marley
“Don’t complicate your mind.”
“Don’t gain the world and lose your soul, wisdom is better than silver or gold.”
“Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.”
“I will never regret you or say I wish I’d never met you, because once upon a time, you were exactly what I needed.”
“Being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure.”
“The day you stop racing is the day you win the race.” – Bob Marley
“Who are you to judge the life I live? I am not perfect and I don’t have to be! Before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean.” – Bob Marley
“If she’s amazing, she won’t be easy. If she’s easy, she won’t be amazing. If she’s worth it, you wont give up. If you give up, you’re not worthy.” – Bob Marley
“Road of life is rocky and you may stumble too, so while you talk about me, someone else is judging you.” – Bob Marley
“You entertain people who are satisfied. Hungry people can’t be entertained – or people who are afraid. You can’t entertain a man who has no food.” – Bob Marley
“Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.”
“Though the road’s been rocky, it sure feels good to me.”
“Light up the darkness.”
“Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.”
“If you get down and quarell everyday, you’re saying prayers to the devil, I say.”
“My fear is my only courage.”
“In this bright future you can’t forget your past.”
“When one door is closed, don’t you know that many more are open.”
“In the abundance of water a fool is thirsty.” – Bob Marley
“If she’s amazing, she won’t be easy. If she’s easy, she won’t be amazing. If she’s worth it, you won’t give up. If you give up, you’re not worthy.”
“She may not be the most popular or prettiest, but if you love her and she makes you smile.. what else matters?” – Bob Marley
“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively” – Bob Marley
“The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?” – Bob Marley
“You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.” – Bob Marley
“Man is a universe within himself.”
“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. Wake up and live!” – Bob Marley
“Love the life you live. Live the life you love.”
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.”
“One love, one heart. Let’s get together and feel all right”
“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…”
“Forget your troubles and dance.”
“Love would never leave us alone.”
“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our mind.”
“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 jealously. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake up and live!”
“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.”
“Tell the children the truth.”
“Money can’t buy life.”
“The roads been rocky, but it sure feels good to me.”
“Don’t trust people whose feelings change with time. Trust people whose feelings remain the same, even when the time changes.”
“If you can love the wrong person that much, imagine how much you can love the right one.”
“The good times of today, are the sad thoughts of tomorrow.”
“The mind replays what the heart can’t delete.”
“Every time I plant a seed, He say kill it before it grow, he say kill it before they grow.”
“Two thousand years of history Black History could not be wiped away so easily.”—Zion Train, from the album Uprising (1980)
“You have to be someone.”
“You say you love rain, but you use an umbrella to walk under it. You say you love sun, but you seek shelter when it is shining. You say you love wind, but when it comes you close your windows. So that’s why I’m scared when you say you love me.” – Bob Marley
“The day you stop racing, is the day you win the race.”
“My future is righteousness.”
“You say you love rain, but you use an umbrella to walk under it. You say you love sun, but you seek shelter when it is shining. You say you love wind, but when it comes you close your windows. So that’s why I’m scared when you say you love me.”
“Don’t gain the world and lose your soul. Wisdom is better than silver and gold.” —Zion Train, from the album Uprising (1980)
“Me only have one ambition, y’know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all.”
“Forget how much it hurts and try again.”
“It take many a year, mon, and maybe some bloodshed must be, but righteousness someday prevail.”
“I didn’t change, I just found myself.”
“Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.”
“Who are you to judge the life I live? I am not perfect and I don’t have to be! Before you start pointing fingers, make sure your hands are clean.”
“When one door is closed, don’t you know, another is open.”
“You find strength in knowing that you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end.” – Bob Marley
“Everything is political. I will never be a politician or even think political. Me just deal with life and nature. That is the greatest thing to me.”
“My music fights against the system that teaches to live and die.”
“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.”
“And no matter what game they play we got something they can never take away.”
“You entertain people who are satisfied. Hungry people can’t be entertained – or people who are afraid. You can’t entertain a man who has no food.”
“If something can corrupt you, you’re corrupted already.”
“What important is man should live in righteousness, in natural love for mankind.”
“None but ourselves can free our minds.”
“If you’re white and you’re wrong, then you’re wrong; if you’re black and you’re wrong, you’re wrong. People are people. Black, blue, pink, green – God make no rules about color; only society make rules where my people suffer, and that why we must have redemption and redemption now.”
“You may not be her first, her last, her only. She loved before, she may love again. But if she loves you now, what else matters?” – Bob Marley
“The winds that sometimes take something we love, are the same that bring us something we learn to love.”
“The biggest coward of a man is to awaken the love of a woman without the intention of loving her.”
“You just can’t live in that negative way… make way for the positive day.”
“The people who were trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?”
“Beginnings are usually scary, and endings are usually sad, but it’s everything in between that makes it all worth living.”
“You can fool some people sometimes, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”
“Just because you are happy it does not mean that the day is perfect but that you have looked beyond its imperfections.”
“Keep calm and chive on.” —As quoted in a 1974 interview with Lester Bangs
“Every day the bucket a-go a well, one day the bottom a-go drop out.”—I Shot The Sheriff, from the album Burnin’ (1973)
“You just can’t live in that negative way….. make way for the positive day.”
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.”
“I have a BMW. But only because BMW stands for and The Wailers, and not because I need an expensive car.”
“You never know how strong you are, until being strong is your only choice.”
“Wake up and live!”
“If she’s amazing, she won’t be easy. If she’s easy, she won’t be amazing. If she’s worth it, you won’t give up. If you give up, you’re not worthy. … Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.”
“Live for yourself and you will live in vain; live for others and you will live again.”
“Just because you are happy, it does not mean that the day is perfect, but that you have looked beyond its imperfections.”
“In the abundance of water a fool is thirsty.”
“Judge not, before you judge yourself.”
“Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny.” —Zimbabwe, from the album Survival (1979)
“Alcohol make you drunk, man. It don’t make you meditate, it just make you drunk. Herb is more a consciousness.”
