Rastafari is a spiritual movement that originated in Jamaica in the 1930s. It encompasses a set of beliefs that emphasize the importance of African heritage, empowerment of the marginalized, unity, and reverence for Haile Selassie I, the former emperor of Ethiopia. Rastafarians often advocate for social justice, reject materialism, and embrace a natural way of living. The movement has its roots in resistance to oppression and seeks to uplift individuals and communities through its spiritual teachings and cultural practices.
Rastafari Quotes
1. “Don’t gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or gold.”
— Bob Marley
2. “Everyone will someday be judged for what they do, and Jah is the only judge.”
— Dennis Brown
3. “This world was not created piecemeal. Africa was born no later and no earlier than any other geographical area on this globe. Africans, no more and no less than other men, possess all human attributes, talents and deficiencies, virtues and faults.”
— Haile Selassie I
4. “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.”
— Bob Marley
5. “Any interpretation of the significance of Rastafari must begin with the understanding that it is a conscious attempt by the African soul to free itself from the alienating fetters of colonialism and its contemporary legacies.”
— Ennis B. Edmonds
6. “Rasta psychology is resistance and liberation psychology—the sum total of the organized and spontaneous campaign against racist subjection, fired by the burning desire to be free from all forms of social, economic, and political domination.”
— Clinton Hutton
7. “Rasta is a concept, Rasta is a religion, Rasta is a faith, Rasta is you. You make yourself to be a Rasta. And in order to be a Rasta, you have to seek first the Kingdom of God, and all things shall be added.”
— Brother Yendi
8. “Rastafarianism is the first mass movement among West Indians preoccupied with the task of looking into themselves and asking the fundamental question, Who am I? or What am I?”
— Dennis Forsythe
9. “The Rastafari identity can serve as a radical challenge to oppression because it demands that reform begin with oneself.”
— Charles Price
10. “A Rasta is someone who has been elected and who is making his calling and election sure to enter, holy Zion!”
— Empress Yuajah
11. “Rastafari identity is a version of a long-standing set of racialized dialogues concerned with challenging oppression and White cultural hegemony.”
— Charles Price
12. “Not every Rasta knows he is Rasta yet, but eventually he will have no choice but to know.”
— Empress Yuajah
13. “Rastafari men and women also sport a unique hairstyle, which they prefer to as dreads, but more correctly known as locks.”
— Seon M. Lewis
14. “Born Rasta’s have spiritually inherited the values and beliefs of what it means to be Rastafari. In Rastafari, we value respect and show love.”
— Empress Yuajah
15. “The principles of Rastafarian lifestyle, called ‘livity’, encode a commitment to live organically and harmoniously with the environment, which is infused with Jah’s power.”
— Ennis Barrington Edmonds
16. “Rastafari is a spiritual way of life, not a religion. We don’t have hard and fast rules, we don’t try to convert others, and we certainly don’t believe anybody should die because they don’t believe the same thing we do.”
— Empress Yuajah
17. “Dreadlocks are the multivalent symbol of Rastafarian self-confidence, valorization of African beauty, and mythical connection with Jah.”
— Ennis Barrington Edmonds
18. “Rastafarians are pro-life. We believe all life is valuable at all times. There are no exceptions to this rule, ever!”
— Empress Yuajah
19. “Rastafarians obey the laws of the Old Testament in the Bible, and do not cut or comb their dreads because they believe the Bible forbids it.”
— Amber Wilson
20. “Rastafari is a way of life that acknowledges Jah is some very specific, special and spiritual ways.”
— Empress Yuajah
21. “Life and Jah are one in the same. Jah is the gift of existence. I am in some way eternal, I will never be duplicated. The singularity of every man and woman is Jah’s gift. What we struggle to make of it is our sole gift to Jah. The process of what that struggle becomes, in time, the truth.”
— Bob Marley
22. “To embrace Rastafari is a blessing. Convert to Rastafari is my way of sharing this blessing of my faith, with those who want to embrace it too. The more Rastafari-minded individuals we have on the earth, the better the world will be.”
— Empress Yuajah
23. “Rastafarians have a close relationship with nature.”
— Amber Wilson
24. “A Rasta is a person who loves and respects, and is spiritually aware of, the earth, himself, King Selassie I, Jah, and Jah’s creations.”
— Empress Yuajah
25. “Even in Jamaican society, Rastafarianism is a unique phenomenon, in that it appears unrelated to European or even African cultural antecedents.”
— Velma Pollard
26. “The Rastafari diet is called Ital, which comes from the word ‘vital’. Rastafarians use the term ‘Ital’ to mean a natural and healthy way of life.”
— Amber Wilson
27. “For most Jamaicans, religion is much more than just paying lip service to vague ideals; it represents a total involvement, a way of life.”
— Harry S. Pariser
28. “Jamaica has often been characterized as an extremely religious society, and one place this religiosity is strongly reflected is in the country’s popular music — particularly in the strong influence of the Rastafarian faith on reggae.”
— Michael Veal
29. “Rastas represent the spirit of the lion in the way they carry themselves, in their looks, and in their challenging attitudes towards contemporary social values.”
— Harry S. Pariser
30. “Rastas are congenial, gentle, and trustworthy people. The true Rasta, that is.”
— Harry S. Pariser
31. “It is not only war that can stop the war but men of goodwill, conscious of their mission can deal with such deadly enemy.”
— Haile Selassie
32. “Enlightened leadership is spiritual if we understand spirituality not as some kind of religious dogma or ideology but as the domain of awareness where we experience values like truth, goodness, beauty, love and compassion, and also intuition, creativity, insight, and focused attention.”
— Deepak Chopra
33. “Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you ride through the ruts, don’t complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief, and jealousy. Don’t bury your thoughts, put your vision into reality. Wake Up and Live!”
— Bob Marley
34. “There are as many kinds of Rastas as the reeds that grow on the riverbank. There’s the baldhead Rasta, like me. There’s the white Rasta, like you. There’s the rootical Rasta…There’s Congo Dread and Coptic Dread. But it all stems from the same thing, and it all goes through the same place, the heart, you know.”
— Gerald Hausman
35. “What is it about this movement—developing in the slums of West Kingston, Jamaica—that makes it so appealing to people of very different nationalities, ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic standings, and academic interests?”
— Nathaniel Samuel Murrell
36. “Too many, dreadlocks are a symbol of defiance against ‘Babylon’, to others a way of manifesting individual, personal choice and being different from the mainstream aesthetic norms, whilst to others they are simply the natural way of wearing one’s hair according to biblical scripture.”
— Katrin Hansing
37. “Just because you are happy it does not mean that the day is perfect but that you have looked beyond its imperfections.”
— Bob Marley
38. “The more people smoke herb, the more Babylon falls.”
— Bob Marley
39. “A Rasta is a person who knows each man and woman will be responsible for his and her own judgment by Jah.”
— Empress Yuajah
40. “The Rastafari are a recent reincarnation of these efforts to develop racially grounded cultural alternatives, and like their predecessors, they, too, suffered from suppression and rejection by their fellow citizens and kin.”
— Charles Price
41. “Rastafarians do not represent the traditional culture of precolonial Africans, they sought to adopt as many of the elements of the traditional culture as they could, and called attention to the history of pre-colonial Africa.”
— Anita M. Waters
42. “Rastafari has much in common with ‘prefigurative’ social movements in that the Rastafari identity (and its cultural complex) provides ideas for people experimenting with different ways of relating and living.”
— Charles Price
43. “Another noticeable characteristic of Rastafari is their clothing. Designed by themselves, it is made with bright colors of red, green and yellow. These colors are not there only for decorative beauty, but they represent significant religious implications to Rastafari.”
— Seon M. Lewis
44. “Becoming a Rastafarian is characteristically a conversion process and identity transformation.”
— Charles Price
45. “Rastafari is a spirituality of the heart. If you use your mind to understand something that is spiritual, you may miss the true essence and meaning of it.”
— Empress Yuajah
46. “Rastafari believe that they are the only ones who are today living up to the Lord’s biblical stipulations. The stipulation of not cutting one’s hair.”
— Seon M. Lewis
47. “Many people of all ethnic stripes, who find themselves marginalized by what they perceive as the oppressive and homogenizing values have found in Rastafari a means of resisting those values and institutions, and returning home to a sense of self, rooted in a divine relationship with Jah.”
— Ennis Barrington Edmonds
48. “Rastafari was acting upon human nature. They are engaged in humanity’s ancient national pastime, cultivating their culture, and, for that, they should not be demonized just because well-established religious say so.”
— Seon M. Lewis
49. “Out of the dark colonial past of their forbears, Rastas have risen up to affirm their self-dignity, African heritage, and right to self-determination.”
— Ennis Barrington Edmonds
50. “Some Rastas believe that their hair resembles the mane, of a lion, others believe it shows the crown of their Jah Selassie. Dreads are mostly worn in compliance with the Biblical references.”
— Johannes Schiefer
51. “An important part of some Rastafarian’s ceremonies is smoking a green herb called marijuana, or ganja while reciting prayers. Rastafarians believe this herb calms people and brings them together in a peaceful way.”
— Amber Wilson
52. “Rastas are basically vegetarians. Vegetables, fruit, and juices are dietary staples.”
— Harry S. Pariser
53. “Smoking marijuana is illegal in many parts of the world, including Jamaica, but Rastafarians do not obey this law because they believe it was created by people who do not share their religion.”
— Amber Wilson
54. “Most famous (and at times in the past, infamous) of all the sects originating in the Caribbean, Rastafarianism is also the most horrendously misunderstood.”
— Harry S. Pariser
55. “Although there were abundant love songs, novelty songs, slackness songs, and instrumentals, the Rastafarian influence was dominant in the popular reggae of the era.”
— Michael Veal
56. “Rastafarians encounter all manner of diverse opinions, hearsay and half-truths about themselves, usually from those who see them from the perspective of spectators rather than faith disciples.”
— Abba Yahudah
57. “Rastafarian belief rejected modern technology in favor of a philosophy of naturalism typified by a rural (‘roots’) lifestyle.”
— Michael Veal
58. “God knows, Freedom for some I am bawling Oh Selassie I, Rastafarian calling Beenie Man a sing a thing.”
— Moses Davis
59. “A vester on his chest and Rastafarian is his name. A gift of everlasting life for us to all sustain Blessing that you all be got, lessons taught you all forgot.”
— David Nesta Marley
60. “Above my bed, Bob’s face I saw, my daddy looking at me so passionately, little brother. Well, in his eyes I saw the truth, Mommy, the truth of a Rastaman, the truth of a layman.”
— Ziggy Marley
70. “For if one day it’s coffee, the next day it may be tea, but if there is nothing at all, ALMIGHTY, I-n-I will still give thanks to Thee.”
— Robert Athlyi Rogers
71. “JAH would never give the power to a baldhead. Run some crucify the dread. Time alone, oh! time will tell. Think you’re in heaven, but you living in hell.”
— Bob Marley