Harry Belafonte Quotes (25 Quotes)

We've come to this dark time in which the new Gestapo of Homeland Security lurks here, where citizens are having their rights suspended.

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.

We've watched her be abused in the past, and she's overcome, stood strong. We're not going to be absent or indifferent to the fact that she may be abused again.

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.

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.

The idea that you work in the house of the master is almost in itself its own opportunity to do some mischief and make a difference, but when you are in that place and you help perpetuate the master's policy that perpetuates oppression and pain for many others, then something has to be said about it, ... And the master in this instance, of course, was the president of the United States.

I like Colin Powell, I like his West Indian background, I like his intellect, I like a lot of things that he does and his style. What is at fault here is a policy that's taking this country to hell,

You can be arrested and not charged. You can be arrested and have no right to counsel.

We've taken citizens from this country without the right to be charged, without being told what they're taken for, we've spirited them out of this country, taken them to far away places, and reports come back with some consistency that they are being tortured, that they're not being told what they've done. And even some who have been released have come back and testified to this fact.

I think that they Bush Administration are men who are possessed of evil.

There's an old saying, ... In the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and there were those slaves that lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master ... exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him.

I see in Silvio a voice constantly trying to bring hope, and belief in a future humanity that we could all enjoy,

I think Bush has a very selfish, arrogant point of view. I think he is interested in power, I think he believes his truth is the only truth, and that he will do what he wants to do despite the people.

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,

We respect you, admire you, and we are expressing our full solidarity with the Venezuelan people and your revolution.

This generosity that has been offered to the United States says very much about the Venezuelan spirit.

I was quite taken with her, because I'd never seen the African influence in dance with that kind of strength and artistic power. It impacted my soul. No one had reached those heights. She was the definitive black dance company. She moved among the highest intellectuals of black culture, all the writers and painters and literary folk.

No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we're here to tell you Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people ... support your revolution.

You can cage the singer but not the song.

Fascism is fascism. Terrorism is terrorism. Oppression is oppression.

It was not only the extreme reverence with which the young viewed him, it was the way they began to sing the songs. It was more than just mouthing the lyrics they became deeply connected to his poetry.

In his Jerusalem Post interview, Belafonte also reiterated his claim that the policies of the Bush administration are very much similar to the things that were done when Hitler was on the rise. ... that 'sometimes the Jewish people have laid claim to such a high and pure morality' that they take great exception to facts which challenge that claim, despite that theirs 'is a DNA that sits within the entire human family'.

Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Color does not necessarily denote quality, content or value,

I not only think that they are misguided, but I think they know exactly what they are doing, and I think that they are men who are possessed of evil.

I can understand why Jewish leaders would be prone to protect the image of George Bush and his administration, ... even when there are questions of the humanitarian, the moral and the political motivation of things that are done to Palestinians.