Dick Gregory
I never learned hate at home, or shame. I had to go to school for that.Collection: Home
There's a God force inside of you that gives you a will to live.Collection: God
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.Collection: Attitude
Political promises are much like marriage vows. They are made at the beginning of the relationship between candidate and voter, but are quickly forgotten.Collection: Marriage
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.Collection: History
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.Collection: War
People with high blood pressure, diabetes - those are conditions brought about by life style. If you change the life style, those conditions will leave.Collection: Change
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.Collection: History
It's cool to be healthy.Collection: Cool
In most places in the country, voting is looked upon as a right and a duty, but in Chicago it's a sport.Collection: Politics
I buy about $1,500 worth of papers every month. Not that I trust them. I'm looking for the crack in the fabric.Collection: Trust
When you have a good mother and no father, God kind of sits in. It's not enough, but it helps.Collection: Mom
When I lost my rifle, the Army charged me 85 dollars. That is why in the Navy the Captain goes down with the ship.
If it wasn't for Abe Lincoln, I'd still be on the open market.
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.
Love is very dangerous if you just have love and don't have the ability to be lovable.
In America, with all of its evils and faults, you can still reach through the forest and see the sun. But we don't know yet whether that sun is rising or setting for our country.
I wouldn't mind paying taxes - if I knew they were going to a friendly country.
Coconut milk is the only thing on this planet that comes identically to mother's milk.
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'?
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.
Hell hath no fury like a liberal scorned.
I waited at the counter of a white restaurant for eleven years. When they finally integrated, they didn't have what I wanted.
Riches do not delight us so much with their possession, as torment us with their loss.
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.
I never believed in Santa Claus because I knew no white dude would come into my neighborhood after dark.
There is a limit on how much information you can keep bottled up.
To me, seeing a really great comedian is a bit like watching a musician or a poet.
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.
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.
I tell people, 'If you want to send a message to the White House, call my house.'
You know why Madison Avenue advertising has never done well in Harlem? We're the only ones who know what it means to be Brand X.
Being white is a job in America. You take that away, you better get the soldiers out.
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.
I used to get letters saying, 'I didn't know black children and white children were the same.'
I'm not a comic. I'm a humorist.
Once I realised the value of making people laugh, I got very good at it. Fast.
Every holiday on the calendar, I check in a hotel and fast - I don't eat, I don't drink, I don't talk.
My belief is, you know, certain things have to be explained that's never been explained.
I never thought I'd see the day that I would see white folks as frightened, or more so, than black folks was during the civil rights movement when we was in Mississippi.
I am really enjoying the new Martin Luther King Jr stamp - just think about all those white bigots, licking the backside of a black man.
When I was a boy, I was taught never to use insulting expressions like, 'I've been gypped,' or, 'He welshed on the deal.'
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.
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.
When I first broke through, there was only NBC, CBS and ABC, and they had news in the morning and in the evening - there wasn't no 24-hour news.
Everything we do we should look at in terms of millions of people who can't afford it.
The most difficult thing to get people to do is to accept the obvious.Collection: People
Love is man's natural endowment, but he doesn't know how to use it. He refuses to recognize the power of love because of his love of power.Collection: Wisdom
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.Collection: White
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.Collection: Judging