Quotes by Bono

Bono

Irish singer, songwriter, philanthropist, activist and businessman

Lived from: 1960 -

Category: Music | Business and entrepreneurs | Politics

Born: 10 may 1960

  • The most powerful idea that's entered the world in the last few thousand years - the idea of grace - is the reason I would like to be a Christian.
  • We actually aren't able to play other people's songs. The one Stones song we tried to play was Jumpin' Jack Flash. It was really bad. So we started writing our own — it was easier.
  • Africa is a continent in flames. And deep down, if we really accepted that Africans were equal to us, we would all do more to put the fire out. We're standing around with watering cans, when what we really need is the fire brigade.
  • So what we're talking about here is human rights. The right to live like a human. The right to live, period. And what we're facing in Africa is an unprecedented threat to human dignity and equality.
  • You see, idealism detached from action is just a dream. But idealism allied with pragmatism, with rolling up your sleeves and making the world bend a bit, is very exciting. It's very real. It's very strong.
  • In my view, the only thing worse than a rock star is a rock star with a conscience.
  • As a rock star, I have two instincts, I want to have fun, and I want to change the world. I have a chance to do both.
  • All That You Can't Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb are both really mad long titles. As I've just said them, I've just realised how ridiculous the titles are.
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  • 20 years on I'm not that interested in charity. I'm interested in justice. There's a difference. Africa needs justice as much as it needs charity.
    Equality for Africa is a big idea. It's a big expensive idea.
    PENN Address (2004)
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  • Actually oddly enough, I think my work, the activism, will be forgotten. And I hope it will. Because I hope those problems will have gone away.
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  • Africa is a continent in flames. And deep down, if we really accepted that Africans were equal to us, we would all do more to put the fire out. We're standing around with watering cans, when what we really need is the fire brigade.
    ― Bono
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  • All That You Can't Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb are both really mad long titles. As I've just said them, I've just realised how ridiculous the titles are.
    CNN Interview, after the 2006 Grammys (9 February 2006)
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  • America is not just a country, it's an idea, and real Americans are getting busy.
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  • Anyone that's involved in development has discovered that all the good work that's been done in development has been undone by the AIDS emergency.
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  • As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place. Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.
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  • As a rock star, I have two instincts, I want to have fun, and I want to change the world. I have a chance to do both.
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  • As hard as it is, as ghetto as it is, hip-hop is pop music. It's the sound of music getting out of the ghetto, while rock is looking for a ghetto.
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  • At the heart of the Irish economy has always been the philosophy of tax competitiveness. On the cranky left, that is very annoying; I can see that.
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  • Because I was suspicious of the traditional Christian church, I tended to tar them all with the same brush. That was a mistake, because there are righteous people working in a whole rainbow of belief systems - from Hasidic Jews to right-wing Bible Belters to charismatic Catholics.
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  • Books! I dunno if I ever told you this, but books are the greatest gift one person can give another.
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  • Bowie was much more responsible for the aesthetic of punk rock than he's been given credit for, like, in fact, most interesting things in the Seventies and Eighties.
    Rolling Stone interview (2005)
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  • But more than anything else, for the British folks Irish people were all terrorists. So when we went to Britain, it was always a lot of resistance to U2. And that's why we came to America.
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  • But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross.
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  • Can you imagine your second album — the difficult second album — it's about God? Everyone is tearing their hair out and Chris Blackwell says, It's okay. There's Bob Marley and Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, it's a tradition. We can get through it.
    About the album October (album) (1981) in a speech accepting induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (17 March 2005).
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  • Contrary to reports, this boy is not a billionaire or going to be richer than any Beatle... and not just in the sense of money, by the way; the Beatles are untouchable - those billionaire reports are a joke.
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  • Convictions, in the end, they can be dangerous, but a world without them is just kind of an awful kind of gray, amorphous mass.
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  • Distance does not decide who is your brother and who is not. The church is going to have to become the conscience of the free market if it's to have any meaning in this world - and stop being its apologist.
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  • Ethiopia didn't just blow my mind; it opened my mind. Anyway, on our last day at this orphanage a man handed me his baby and said, 'Would you take my son with you?' He knew, in Ireland, that his son would live, and that in Ethiopia, his son would die.
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Questions and Answers

What are the most famous quotes from Bono?

The two most famous quotes from Bono are:

  • "20 years on I'm not that interested in charity. I'm interested in justice. There's a difference. Africa needs justice as much as it needs charity.
    Equality for Africa is a big idea. It's a big expensive idea."
  • "Actually oddly enough, I think my work, the activism, will be forgotten. And I hope it will. Because I hope those problems will have gone away."

When did Bono live?

Bono is still alive and was born in 1960.