Paul Robeson Quotes & Sayings

When I sang my American folk melodies in Budapest, Prague, Tiflis, Moscow, Oslo, or the Hebrides or on the Spanish front, the people understood and wept or rejoiced with the spirit of the songs. I found that where forces have been the same, whether people weave, build, pick cotton, or dig in the mine, they understand each other in the common language of work, suffering, and protest. — Paul Robeson

With Othello, Shakespeare posed this problem of a black man in a white society in the role that he's playing. And Shakespeare gave Othello such dignity - he came not from - as he said - not from hate but from honor, from a sense of his own human dignity. And to me, to my mind, there could be no greater character played. — Paul Robeson

Freedom is a hard-bought thing and millions are in chains, but they strain toward the new day drawing near. — Paul Robeson

I've learned that my people are not the only ones oppressed ... I have sung my songs all over the world and everywhere found that some common bond makes the people of all lands take to Negro songs as their own. — Paul Robeson

I know that if the peace movement takes its message boldly to the Negro people a powerful force can be secured in pursuit of the greatest goal of all mankind. And the same is true of labor and the great democratic sections of our population. — Paul Robeson

Every artist, every scientist, must decide now where he stands. He has no alternative. There is no standing above the conflict on Olympian heights. There are no impartial observers. Through the destruction, in certain countries, of the greatest of man's literary heritage, through the propagation of false ideas of racial and national superiority, the artist, the scientist, the writer is challenged. The struggle invades the formerly cloistered halls of our universities and other seats of learning. The battlefront is everywhere. There is no sheltered rear. — Paul Robeson

My future depends mostly upon myself. — Paul Robeson

This United States Government should go down to Mississippi and protect my people. That is what should happen. — Paul Robeson

I shall take my voice wherever there are those who want to hear the melody of freedom or the words that might inspire hope and courage in the face of fear. My weapons are peaceful, for it is only by peace that peace can be attained. The song of freedom must prevail. — Paul Robeson

As Americans, preserving the best of our traditions, we have the right- nay the duty-to fight for participation in the forward march of humanity — Paul Robeson

We ask for nothing that is not right, and herein lies the great power of our demand. — Paul Robeson

The artist must elect to fight for Freedom or for Slavery. — Paul Robeson

I do not hesitate one second to state clearly and unmistakably: I belong to the American resistance movement which fights against American imperialism, just as the resistance movement fought against Hitler. — Paul Robeson

The faces and the tactics of the leaders may change every four years, or two, or one, but the people go on forever. The people- beaten down today, yet rising tomorrow; losing the road one minute but finding it the next; their eyes always fixed on a star of true brotherhood, equality and dignity- the people are the real guardians of our hopes and dreams. — Paul Robeson

As Americans, preserving the best ... — Paul Robeson

We must join with the tens of millions all over the world who see in peace our most sacred responsibility. — Paul Robeson

The patter of their feet as they walk through Jim Crow barriers to attend school is the thunder of the marching men of Joshua, and the world rocks beneath their tread. — Paul Robeson

And, gentlemen, they have not yet done so, and it is quite clear that no Americans, no people in the world probably, are going to war with the Soviet Union. — Paul Robeson

But the deep desire for peace remained with the American people. — Paul Robeson

The intolerance of the few, or the risk of it, carries the day against the wider humanity of the many. — Paul Robeson

Art is not just to show life as it is, but to show life as it should be. — Paul Robeson

The Korean war has always been an unpopular war among the American people. — Paul Robeson

You know I am an actor, and I have medals for diction. — Paul Robeson

I stand here struggling for the rights of my people to be full citizens in this country. They are not-in Mississippi. They are not-in Montgomery. That is why I am here today ... You want to shut up every colored person who wants to fight for the rights of his people!. — Paul Robeson

Yes, I heard my people singing!-in the glow of parlor coal-stove and on summer porches sweet with lilac air, from choir loft and Sunday morning pews-and my soul was filled with their harmonies. Then, too, I heard these songs in the very sermons of my father, for in the Negro's speech there is much of the phrasing and rhythms of folk-song. The great, soaring gospels we love are merely sermons that are sung; and as we thrill to such gifted gospel singers as Mahalia Jackson, we hear the rhythmic eloquence of our preachers, so many of whom, like my father, are masters of poetic speech. — Paul Robeson

To be free ... to walk the good American earth as equal citizens, to live without fear, to enjoy the fruits of our toil, to give our children every opportunity in life
that dream which we have held so long in our hearts is today the destiny that we hold in our hands. — Paul Robeson

In Russia I felt for the first time like a full human being. No color prejudice like in Mississippi, no color prejudice like in Washington. It was the first time I felt like a human being. — Paul Robeson

Artists are the radical voice of civilization. — Paul Robeson

The talents of an artist, small or great, are God-given. They've nothing to do with the private person; they're nothing to be proud of. They're just a sacred trust ... Having been given, I must give. Man shall not live by bread alone, and what the farmer does I must do. I must feed the people - with my songs. — Paul Robeson

This is our home and this is our country. Beneath its soil lie bones of our fathers; for it some of them fought, bled, and died. Here we were born and here we will stay. — Paul Robeson

In the early days of my carer as an actor, I shared what was then the prevailing attitude of Negro performers :;that the content and form of a play or a film scenario was of little importance to us. What mattered was was the opportunity, which came so seldom to our folks ... Later I came to understand that the Negro artist could not view the matter simply in terms of of his individual interests, and that he had a responsibility to his people who rightfully resented the traditional stereotyped portrayals of Negros on stage and screen. — Paul Robeson

In my music, my plays, my films, I want to carry always this central idea: to be African. — Paul Robeson

At every step the vast majority have expressed horror at the idea of an aggressive war. — Paul Robeson

Freedom is a hard-bought thing. — Paul Robeson

The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic, but to end the injustice. — Paul Robeson

And at home in the United States we found continued and increased persecution, first of leaders of the Communist Party, and then of all honest anti-fascists. — Paul Robeson

The man who accepts Western values absolutely, finds his creative faculties becoming so warped and stunted that he is almost completely dependent on external satisfactions, and the moment he becomes frustrated in his search for these, he begins to develop neurotic symptoms, to feel that life is not worth living, and, in chronic cases, to take his own life. — Paul Robeson

This is the basis, and I am not being tried for whether I am a Communist, I am being tried for fighting for the right of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this United States of America — Paul Robeson

Sometimes great injustices may be inflicted on the minority when the majority is in the pursuit of a great and just cause. — Paul Robeson

Get them to sing your song and they will want to know who you are. — Paul Robeson

Americans will be amazed to find ho many of the modern dance steps are relics of the African heritage. — Paul Robeson

You want to shut up every Negro who has the courage to stand up and fight for the rights of his people, for the rights of workers, and I have been on many a picket line for the steelworkers too. — Paul Robeson

I learned that along with the towering achievements of the cultures of ancient Greece and China there stood the culture of Africa, unseen and denied by the imperialist looters of Africa's material wealth. — Paul Robeson

I feel closer to my country than ever. There is no longer a feeling of lonesome isolation. Instead-peace. I return without fearing prejudice that once bothered me ... for I know that people practice cruel bigotry in their ignorance, not maliciously — Paul Robeson

I found a special eagerness among the younger, and I am sorry to say, the more intelligent Negroes, to dismiss the spiritual as something beneath their new pride in their race. It is as if they wanted to put it behind them as something to be ashamed of ... — Paul Robeson

Like any other people, like fathers, mothers, sons and daughters in every land, when the issue of peace or war has been put squarely to the American people, they have registered for peace. — Paul Robeson

Why should the Negroes ever fight against the only nations of the world where racial discrimination is prohibited, and where the people can live freely? Never! I can assure you, they will never fight against either the Soviet Union or the peoples' democracies. — Paul Robeson

I am truly happy that I am able to travel from time to time to the USSR the country I love above all. I always have been, I am now and will always be a loyal friend of the Soviet Union. — Paul Robeson

In all spheres of modern life the influence of Stalin reaches wide and deep. From his last simply written but vastly discerning and comprehensive document, back through the years, his contributions to the science of our world society remain invaluable. One reverently speaks of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin - the shapers of humanity's richest present and future. — Paul Robeson

The course of history can be changed but not halted. — Paul Robeson

If the American Negro is to have a culture of his own he will have to leave America to get it. — Paul Robeson

Every artist, every scientist, every writer must decide now where he stands. The artist must take sides. He must elect to fight for freedom or for slavery. I have made my choice. I had no alternative. — Paul Robeson

Vast quantities of U.S. bombers, tanks and guns have been sent against Ho Chi Minh and his freedom-fighters; and now we are told that soon it will be 'advisable' to send America GI's into Indo-China in order that the tin, rubber and tungsten of Southeast Asia be kept by the "free world"-meaning white Imperialism . — Paul Robeson

Whether I am or am not a Communist is irrelevant. The question is whether American citizens, regardless of their political beliefs or sympathies, may enjoy their constitutional rights. — Paul Robeson

We [must] realize that our future lies chiefly in our own hands. — Paul Robeson

Films make me into some cheap turn ... You bet they'll never let me play a part in a film where a Negro is on top. — Paul Robeson

My father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I am going to stay here and have a part of it just like you. — Paul Robeson

I did a long concert tour in England and Denmark and Sweden, and I also sang for the Soviet people, one of the finest musical audiences in the world. — Paul Robeson

Four hundred million in India, and millions everywhere, have told you, precisely, that the colored people are not going to die for anybody: they are going to die for their independence. — Paul Robeson

The talents of an artist, small or large, are God-given ... They are a sacred trust. — Paul Robeson

Through the years I have received my share of recognition for efforts in the fields of sports, the arts, the struggle for full citizenship for the Negro people, labor's rights and the fight for peace. — Paul Robeson

For the first time since I began acting, I feel that I've found my place in the world, that there's something out of my own culture which i can express and perhaps help others preserve..i have found out now that the African natives had a definite culture a long way beyond the culture of the Stone age ... an integrated thing, which is still unspoiled by western influences ... I think the Americans will be amazed to find how many of the modern dance steps are relics of African heritage. — Paul Robeson

My mother was born in your state, Mr. Walter, and my mother was a Quaker, and my ancestors in the time of Washington baked bread for George Washington's troops when they crossed the Delaware, and my own father was a slave. — Paul Robeson

I said it was my feeling that the American people would struggle for peace, and that has since been underscored by the President of these United States. — Paul Robeson

In fact, because of this deep desire for peace, the ruling class leaders of this land, from 1945 on, stepped up the hysteria and propaganda to drive into American minds the false notion that danger threatened them from the East. — Paul Robeson

Through my singing and acting and speaking, I want to make freedom ring. Maybe I can touch people's hearts better than I can their minds, with the common struggle of the common man. — Paul Robeson

Could I say that the reason that I am here today, you know, from the mouth of the State Department itself, is: I should not be allowed to travel because I have struggled for years for the independence of the colonial peoples of Africa. — Paul Robeson

As an artist I come to sing, but as a citizen, I will always speak for peace, and no one can silence me in this. — Paul Robeson

If the United States and the United Nations truly want peace and security let them fulfill the hopes of the common people everywhere - let them work together to accomplish on a worldwide scale, precisely the kind of democratic association of free people which characterizes the Soviet Union today. — Paul Robeson

Yes, peace can and must be won, to save the world from the terrible destruction of World War III. — Paul Robeson

The other reason that I am here today, again from the State Department and from the court record of the court of appeals, is that when I am abroad I speak out against the injustices against the Negro people of this land. — Paul Robeson