Bono quotes: on equality, earning money, staying relevant, giving back, and more.
“Dream up the kind of world you want to live in. Dream out loud.”
“To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.”
“It’s your future. The only limits are the limits of your imagination.”
“The world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape.”
“It’s stasis that kills you off in the end, not ambition.”
“If you stop taking chances, you’ll stay where you sit. You won’t live any longer, but it’ll feel like it.”
“Yes, I sometimes fail, but at least I’m willing to experiment.”
“My heroes are the ones who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them.”
“I always think if you are asking somebody for something it is a good idea to give them something first.”
“Where you live in the world should not determine whether you live in the world.”
“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.”
“I’m tired of dreaming. I’m into doing at the moment. It’s like, let’s only have goals that we can go after.”
“The less you know, the more you believe.”
“Feelings are much stronger than thoughts. We are all led by instinct, and our intellect catches up later.”
“It’s still very difficult for me to rely. Your weakness, the blessing of your weakness is it forces you into friendships. The things that you lack, you look for in others.”
“Perspective is the cure for depression.”
“Whenever you see darkness, there is extraordinary opportunity for the light to burn brighter.”
“Truth is beauty. That can be a hard thing to say, because some things are not so attractive on the surface. But by owning up to them, we change them – just by speaking them.”
“Honesty, vulnerability, and a good amount of courageous faith allows you to cry out in your bewilderment and not lose your belief in the process. These things allow you to wrestle your faith rather than lose it.”
“Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Find out what God’s doing. It’s already blessed.”
“In general people put too much faith in the rich, the famous, the politicians, and not enough faith in themselves.”
“Whenever I see grace, I’m moved.”
“Books! I dunno if I ever told you this, but books are the greatest gift one person can give another.”
“The right to be irresponsible and stupid is something I hold very dear. And luckily it is something I do well.”
“Smack in the center of contradiction is the place to be.”
“Technology is huge; I wanted to learn about it. People might say that’s odd, but I think it’s odd if artists aren’t interested in the world around them. I’m always chasing that.”
“Music can change the world because it can change people.”
“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.”
“My own dad didn’t encourage me much, maybe to save me from being disappointed. And my way of rebelling has been to prove I can go out and win the love of the whole world. But it’s a funny need for compensation that makes you need 50,000 screaming people telling you they love you in order for you to feel normal.”
“Overcoming my dad telling me that I could never amount to anything is what has made me the megalomaniac that you see today.”
“I get to hear the really good or the really bad things in the press, but I don’t read it. I can afford to say that because public opinion does not drive U2’s audience.”
“Look, I’m sick of Bono and I am Bono.”
“I have no problem with miracles. I live around them. I am one.”
“The reason I like the game chess is because each move has countless repercussions, but you’re in charge of them. And it’s your ability to see into the future and the effects of the decisions you’ve made that makes you either a good or not a good chess player. It’s not luck.”
“It’s much easier to be successful than it is to be relevant. The tricks won’t keep you relevant. Tricks might keep you popular for a while, but in all honesty, I don’t know how U2 will stay relevant. I know we’ve got a future. I know we can fill stadiums. And yet with every record, I think, ‘Is this it? Are we still relevant?'”
“Mandela’s heroism is the heroism of a man who suffered so badly for what he thought of as freedom. And yet when he had the upper hand he has this incredible self-control and these incredible leadership qualities.”
“Walk on by, walk on through, walk ’til you run and don’t look back for here I am.”
“I guess right down the hall from beatification comes crucifixion, so I better enjoy this.”
“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.”
“I’m a musician. I write songs. I just hope when the day is done I’ve been able to tear a little corner off of the darkness.”
“I felt rich when I was 20 years old and my wife was paying my bills. Just being in a band, I’ve always felt blessed.”
“It costs a fortune to look this trashy.”
“Celebrity is currency, so I wanted to use mine effectively.”
“All celebrities tend to milk their celebrity when it suits them, but, when you’re as blessed, privileged, and, let’s be honest, over-rewarded, as I have been in my life, I think you have a responsibility to put something back.”
“Selling out is doing something you don’t really want to do for money. That’s what selling out is.”
“I have climbed the highest mountains, I have run through the fields, only to be with you. I have run, I have crawled, I have scaled these city walls, only to be with you. But I still… haven’t found… what I’m looking for.”
“It’s a beautiful day. Don’t let it get away.”
Related: Billy Joel quotes.
