Dick Gregory was born in 1932, St. Louis Missouri, United States. Dick Gregory was an African-American comedian, spokesman for health issues, and a civil rights activist who was recognized nationally in the 1960s for his comedy that was against racial prejudice. He addressed his hard-hitting satire to the white audiences by giving a comedic voice to the civil rights movements. Dick Gregory’s nutrition business focused on the unhealthy diets of Black Americans.
Gregory fasted for 70 days back in 1981 and survived with a gallon of water each day with the aim of raising awareness about civil rights. Gregory created quotes that covered all aspects of life including religious judgment, thinking among others. His quotes were meant to fight for civil rights for the Black American In the United States.
Without further ado, here are our favorite Dick Gregory Quotes.
Dick Gregory Quotes
1. “No kid in the world, no woman in the world should ever raise a hand against a no-good daddy. That’s already been taken care of: A Man Who Destroys His Own Home Shall Inherit the Wind”–Dick Gregory
2. “I personally believe breatharianism to be the highest mode of human living […] breathing in pure air, absorbing the direct light and energies of the sun, bathing in pure water […] I look at the obituaries every morning and ain’t nobody listed but you eaters.”– Dick Gregory
3. “When you have a good mother and no father, God kind of sits in. It’s not enough, but it helps.”– Dick Gregory
4. “We thought I was going to be a great athlete, and we were wrong, and I thought I was going to be a great entertainer, and that wasn’t it either. I’m going to be an American Citizen. First-class.”– Dick Gregory
5. “If they took all the drugs, nicotine, alcohol and caffeine off the market for six days, they’d have to bring out the tanks to control you.”– Dick Gregory
6. “I believe young voters will either vote for Obama or not vote at all. So the problem is not Obama the problem is the system. If you think about how mess up this country is, most folk really don’t have choices.”–Dick Gregory
7. “Because I’m a civil rights activist, I am also an animal rights activist. Animals and humans suffer and die alike. Violence causes the same pain, the same spilling of blood, the same stench of death, the same arrogant, cruel and vicious taking of life. We shouldn’t be a part of it.”– Dick Gregory
8. “And we love to dance, especially that new one called the Civil War Twist. The Northern part of you stands still while the Southern part tries to secede.”– Dick Gregory
9. “I personally would say that the quickest way to wipe out a group of people is to put them on a soul food diet. One of the tragedies is that the very folks in the black community who are most sophisticated in terms of the political realities in this country are nonetheless advocates of “soul food.” They will lay down a heavy rap on genocide in America with regard to black folks, then walk into a soul food restaurant and help the genocide along.”– Dick Gregory
10. “You hear entertainers all the time, saying, ‘If I couldn’t get paid for this, I’d do it for free.’ When’s the last time you ever heard a business person say, ‘If I couldn’t get paid for being chairman of British Petroleum, I’d do it for free’?”– Dick Gregory
11. “Let me tell you, never before in the history of this planet has anybody made the progress that African-Americans have made in a 30-year period, in spite of many black folks and white folks lying to one another.”–Dick Gregory
12. “If you take 12 waters from the coconut – not the ones you buy in the store, although that’s good – but the fresh coconuts, the little brown ones with the three eyes, if you take 12 of those within 24 hours, your blood will go back to the way it was when you were born.”– Dick Gregory
13. “Now here’s what I’m saying: I’ve always believed that every other month we hear about compromisation of bank records, I think that’s the CIA and the FBI. Now let me tell you why I’m saying this. I don’t believe no insignificant pip-squeak is going to be able to pull this off month after month and we can’t find out what’s going on.”– Dick Gregory
14.” It was an unwritten law that black comics were not permitted to work white nightclubs. You could sing and you could dance, but you couldn’t stand flat-footed and talk; that was a no-no.”– Dick Gregory
15. “People with high blood pressure, diabetes – those are conditions brought about by life style. If you change the life style, those conditions will leave.”– Dick Gregory
16. “Humans were the only creatures in the world that ate their food cooked. You’d never find a Gorilla frying up some bananas for dinner or a lion charcoal-broiling a zebra steak. Cats don’t often run to the oven with a mouse or bird they’ve captured, and a dog wouldn’t naturally prepare its rabbit dinner in a stew.”– Dick Gregory
17. “When I was a boy, I was taught never to use insulting expressions like, ‘I’ve been gypped,’ or, ‘He welshed on the deal.”– Dick Gregory
18. “When I go through the airport and see white women walking through the airport barefooted, like athlete’s feet don’t exist, there’s something wrong.”– Dick Gregory
19.”My mother was the sweetest lady who ever lived on this planet, but if you tried to tell her that Jesus wasn’t a Christian, she would stomp you to death.”– Dick Gregory
20. “Political promises are much like marriage vows. They are made at the beginning of the relationship between candidate and voter, but are quickly forgotten.”– Dick Gregory
21. “Revolution ain’t nothing but an extent of evolution; Evolution is a fact of nature. So when old folks tell me that they don’t understand hip hop and the music is too loud, well I guess it means you’re not supposed to be in there.”– Dick Gregory
22. “And we love to dance, especially that new one called the Civil War Twist. The Northern part of you stands still while the Southern part tries to secede.”– Dick Gregory
23. “If they took all the drugs, nicotine, alcohol and caffeine off the market for six days, they’d have to bring out the tanks to control you.”– Dick Gregory.
24. “I went to Ethiopia, and it dawned on me that you can tell a starving, malnourished person because they’ve got a bloated belly and a bald head. And I realized that if you come through any American airport and see businessmen running through with bloated bellies and bald heads, that’s malnutrition, too.”– Dick Gregory
25. “We used to root for the Indians against the cavalry, because we didn’t think it was fair in the history books that when the cavalry won it was a great victory, and when the Indians won it was a massacre.”– Dick Gregory
26. “I go to Chinese Christian community. Jesus looks Chinese. I go to Japanese Christian community. Jesus looks Japanese. I go to Brazilian Christian community. Jesus looks Brazilian. How come in America Jesus looks white?”– Dick Gregory
27. “If all you can do is judge a person by their appearance, because you don’t have the spirit to judge someone from within, you’re in trouble.”– Dick Gregory.
28. “You know, I always say white is not a colour, white is an attitude, and if you haven’t got trillions of dollars in the bank that you don’t need, you can’t be white.”– Dick Gregory.
29. “I waited at the counter of a white restaurant for eleven years. When they finally integrated, they didn’t have what I wanted.”– Dick Gregory.
30. “Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant, and this white waitress came up to me and said: ‘We don’t serve colored people here.’ “I said: ‘that’s all right, I don’t eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.”– Dick Gregory.
31.” One of the things I keep learning is that the secret of being happy is doing things for other people.”– Dick Gregory.
32. “Dear Momma―Wherever you are, if ever you hear the word “nigger” again, remember they are advertising my book.”– Dick Gregory.
33. “Momma, a welfare cheater. A criminal who couldn’t stand to see her kids go hungry, or grow up in slumbs and end up mugging people in dar corners. I guess the system didn’t want her to get off relief, the way it kept sending social workers around to be sure Momma wasn’t trying to make things better.”– Dick Gregory
34. “Makes you wonder. When I left St. Louis, I was making five dollars a night. Now I’m getting $5,000 a week — for saying the same things out loud I used to say under my breath.”– Dick Gregory
35. “It was on Thanksgiving Day a number of years ago… I got to thinking that there might be some beings on another planet somewhere who are as intelligent compared with us as we are compared with turkeys.” — Dick Gregory
36. “Then I had visions of these beings from another planet going to the butcher shop with their meat list. I wonder what they’d call their butcher shops? They’d probably call them “folks shops.” I could hear them placing an order: “Give me a half dozen Oriental knees, two Caucasian feet and twelve fresh Black lips.” And the folks-shopkeeper comes back smiling and says, “These Black lips are so fresh they’re still talkin’.”– Dick Gregory
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Summary of Dick Gregory Quotes
In conclusion, Dick Gregory’s famous quotes cover all aspects of life including your thinking, judgment, religion, fight for civil rights and many others.
The quotes are unique and add you adequate wisdom that will help you tackle the day-to-day challenges that you face.
Image Credit: Alcalá yearbook, 1976, University of San Diego via WikiMedia Commons
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