Top 80 Bono Quotes

Because I was suspicious of the traditional Christian church, I tended to tar them all with the same brush. That was a mistake, because there are righteous people working in a whole rainbow of belief systems – from Hasidic Jews to right-wing Bible Belters to charismatic Catholics.

Politeness is, you know, is a wonderful thing. Manners are in fact, really important thing. But remember, Jesus didn’t have many manners as we now know.

Music can change the world because it can change people.

Ethiopia didn’t just blow my mind; it opened my mind. Anyway, on our last day at this orphanage a man handed me his baby and said, ‘Would you take my son with you?’ He knew, in Ireland, that his son would live, and that in Ethiopia, his son would die.

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.

Anyone that’s involved in development has discovered that all the good work that’s been done in development has been undone by the AIDS emergency.

America is not just a country, it’s an idea, and real Americans are getting busy.

Rock ‘n’ roll is ridiculous. It’s absurd. In the past, U2 was trying to duck that. Now we’re wrapping our arms around it and giving it a great big kiss.

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.

When you truly accept that those children in some far off place in the global village have the same value as you in God‘s eyes or even in just your eyes, then your life is forever changed; you see something that you can’t un-see.

In my view, the only thing worse than a rock star is a rock star with a conscience.

Where you live in the world should not determine whether you live in the world.

It’s so sweet, I feel like my teeth are rotting when I listen to the radio.

Marriage is this grand madness, and I think if people knew that, they would perhaps take it more seriously.

I think ‘Invisible‘ is a great song, but I don’t know how accessible it is.

You know, God has some really weird kids, and I find it hard to be in their company most of the time.

We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.

I used to love Kurt Cobain, when he was telling people we’re a pop band. People would laugh, they thought of it as good old ironic Kurt. But he wasn’t being ironic.

U2 is an original species… there are colours and feelings and emotional terrain that we occupy that is ours and ours alone.

What’s so powerful about the Psalms are, as well as they’re being gospel and songs of praise, they are also the blues.

God’s Spirit moves through us and the world at a pace that can never be constricted by any one religious paradigm. I love that.

Religion can be the enemy of God. It’s often what happens when God, like Elvis, has left the building.

I think carrying moral baggage is very dangerous for an artist. If you have a duty, it’s to be true and not cover up the cracks.

Until it’s on the radio or online, it’s not real. With U2, our album isn’t finished until it’s in the stores.

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.

But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross.

I’m never nervous.

I think ABBA have a pure joy to their music and that’s what makes them extraordinary.

If you pour your life into songs, you want them to be heard. It’s a desire to communicate. A deep desire to communicate inspires songwriting.

The job of art is to chase ugliness away.

Facebook are an amazing team, a brilliant team. It’s a technology that brings people together.

I have learned to interface – what I think would be the contemporary term – with various different lexicons, and people speak very different languages. I’ve learned to speak in a lot of tongues, and I can live with the bellicose language of some fervent, fire-breathing Christians, sure.

I believe that Jesus was, you know, the Son of God. And I understand that… we need to be really, really respectful to people who find that ridiculous and… preposterous.

I’m a singer, not a politician, and I think you don’t want the two to get confused. It’s not OK to be on CNN talking about people starving and then tell the interviewer that your new album is coming out in six months.

It’s annoying, but justice and equality are mates. Aren’t they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain.

I am, as a character, at times, a little overbearing. I recognize that.

The French are so into themselves that they don’t even notice you.

I don’t like the name, U2, actually.

When a nation is over-reliant on one or two commodities like oil or precious minerals, corrupt government ministers and their dodgy associates hoard profits and taxes instead of properly allocating them to schools and hospitals.

Particularly conservative Christians, I was very angry that they were not involved more in the AIDS emergency.

Books! I dunno if I ever told you this, but books are the greatest gift one person can give another.

Poverty breeds despair. We know this. Despair breeds violence. We know this. In turbulent times, isn’t it cheaper, and smarter, to make friends out of potential enemies than to defend yourself against them later?

You’ve gotta be very careful that grace and politeness do not merge into a banality of behavior, where we’re just nice, sort of ‘death by cupcake.’

My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ.

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.

Music fills in for words a lot of the time when people don’t know what to say, and I think music can be more eloquent than words.

Jesus isn’t lettin’ you off the hook. The Scriptures don’t let you off the hook so easily… When people say, you know, ‘Good teacher‘, ‘Prophet‘, ‘Really nice guy‘ … this is not how Jesus thought of Himself.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place. Music keeps the heart porous in many ways.

I really have had to swallow my own prejudice at times.

Africa is a continent in flames. And deep down, if we really accepted that Africans were equal to us, we would all do more to put the fire out. We’re standing around with watering cans, when what we really need is the fire brigade.

It’s a privilege to serve the poor, to be servants of noble Africans, but I better belong in the rehearsal room or in the studio with my band. That’s where I want to be and I still wake up in the morning with melodies in my head.

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.

I truly believe that when the history books are written, our age will be remembered for three things: the war on terror, the digital revolution, and what we did – or did not do – to put the fire out in Africa. History, like God, is watching what we do.

As a musician and a songwriter, it is an act of the ego to believe that other people might be interested in your point of view. But it is usually an empathetic nature that gets you going in the first place.

What I like about pop music, and why I’m still attracted to it, is that in the end it becomes our folk music.

I’m home a lot. Because I live in Ireland, we can live under the celebrity radar. I might go missing for a whole year.

To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.

Because you know when you first become famous, you start walking a little different because people are staring at you.

I don’t let my religious world get too complicated.

My heroes are the ones who survived doing it wrong, who made mistakes, but recovered from them.

When you align yourself with God’s purpose as described in the Scriptures, something special happens to your life.

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.

Distance does not decide who is your brother and who is not. The church is going to have to become the conscience of the free market if it’s to have any meaning in this world – and stop being its apologist.

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?’

As hard as it is, as ghetto as it is, hip-hop is pop music. It’s the sound of music getting out of the ghetto, while rock is looking for a ghetto.

I always think if you are asking somebody for something it is a good idea to give them something first.

Convictions, in the end, they can be dangerous, but a world without them is just kind of an awful kind of gray, amorphous mass.

What turns me on about the digital age, what excited me personally, is that you have closed the gap between dreaming and doing. You see, it used to be that if you wanted to make a record of a song, you needed a studio and a producer. Now, you need a laptop.

My understanding of the Scriptures has been made simple by the person of Christ. Christ teaches that God is love.

U2 was involved in Live Aid, and I ended up going to Ethiopia and working there for some time with my wife, Ali.

I accept the Old Testament as more of an action movie: blood, car chases, evacuations, a lot of special effects, seas dividing, mass murder, adultery. The children of God are running amok, wayward. Maybe that’s why they’re so relatable.

At the heart of the Irish economy has always been the philosophy of tax competitiveness. On the cranky left, that is very annoying; I can see that.

So you cannot, as a Christian, walk away from Africa.

I’m as skeptical as anyone would be about celebrities and causes – and I will dare to say to you that I don’t think of myself as a celebrity per se.

Sadly, I do my homework. I’ve a soft spot for the boring minutiae. I read the Charter of the United Nations before meeting with Kofi Annan. I read the Meltzer report, and then I’ll read C. Fred Bergsten’s defense of institutions like the World Bank and the I.M.F. It’s embarrassing to admit.

What really turns me on about technology is not just the ability to get more songs on MP3 players. The revolution – this revolution – is much bigger than that. I hope, I believe. What turns me on about the digital age, what excites me personally, is that you have closed the gap between dreaming and doing.

There was a moment when Prince did rock & roll with a sponge-y seductive sound. I think that’s what was in our head for ‘Get On Your Boots.’ But actually, the song is much more punk rock.

Happy the country that lives on nothing but its wits; cursed be the one that thinks it can get rich by planting or digging or drilling for wealth.

You see, Africa makes a fool of our idea of justice. It makes a farce of our idea of equality. It mocks our pieties. It doubts our concern. It questions our commitment. Because there is no way we can look at what’s happening in Africa, and if we’re honest, conclude that it would ever be allowed to happen anywhere else.

Sub-Saharan Africa is also home to 400 million of the world’s poorest people.