H. Rap Brown Quotes

I could have begged. They made it obvious to me that if I wanted to come back and be a good boy... but I'd rather be in Roots than Good Times.

I am not unconscious of the persuasive power exerted by these considerations to drag men along in the current; but I am not at liberty to travel that road.

We have to wake up. We have to refuse to be a clone.

When there is a huge force pressing down on freedoms, sub-cultures with more creativity and power are likely to form.

Master of the universe but not of myself, I am the only rebel against my absolute power.

I've learned a lot about how people have to fight through their whole lives just to be themselves.

I will be dictated to by nobody. I'm the man. And if anyone can prove me wrong, their chance is inside a boxing ring. You don't like it, change the station.

Those of us who submitted or surrendered our ideas and dreams and identities to the 'leaders' must take back our rights, our identities, our responsibilities.

School is not for me. I'm volatile and hate being told what to do.

I think there's always a conflict within me about being comfortable and secure and then being an individual and fighting for what I want to be on an individual basis.

I was pulled this way and that for longer than I can remember. And my problem was that I always tried to go in everyone's way but my own. I have also been called one thing and then another while no one really wished to hear what I called myself. So after years of trying to adopt the opinions of others I finally rebelled. I am an invisible man.

They can fatten me up. They can give me a full body polish, dress me up, and make me beautiful again. They can design dream weapons that come to life in my hands, but they will never again brainwash me into the necessity of using them. I no longer feel allegiance to these monsters called human beings, despite being one myself.

Men live in glad obedience to the masters they believe in, or they live in a frictional opposition to the master they wish to undermine.

Many young men in the 1960s and 1970s came to reject some of the traditional ideas about manhood that many of their fathers tried to pass down - like unquestioning respect for authority even when that might mean killing and dying for questionable or unjust causes such as the Vietnam War.

I've always done everything at my disposal to avoid labeling what I do, or to avoid being labeled myself.

I do not bow. I do not obey. I do not 'worship.'

A lot of people believe that if everybody just did what they were told - obeyed - everything would be fine. But that's not what life is all about. That's not real. It's never going to happen.

Too often, I have not been what I wanted to be; I've succumbed to pressures. Yes, I have. The things I've done that I liked, I've always done against advice.

To a certain extent, this tour is a celebration of individuality and that you can invent and reinvent yourself. You should have the power to be able to do that. Sexuality is a part of that. It should release you. It doesn't have to be an issue. It shouldn't box you in.

I was seen in earlier years by family members and people of authority as somebody wasting his time. I had trouble with the restrictions of conformity. It made me edgy.

I wasn't that kid where if you told me 'No,' I was just going to do it anyway.

People look at me like I should have been like Malcolm X or Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. I should have seen life like that and stay out of trouble, and don't do this and don't do that. But it's hard to live up to some people's expectations.

I can't imagine people telling me what to do - I just can't imagine it.

Unless one is inordinately fond of subordination, one is always at war.

I resent limitations. I'm going to be this way for a while.