Bob Marley: seven best quotes from the reggae legend

Image 1 of 7

Today marks the 37th anniversary of the death of Jamaican reggae legend Bob Marley, whose albums remain among the best-selling of all time.

Born Robert Nesta Marley in British Jamaica in 1945, he began his career in The Wailers in 1963, before an assassination attempt almost cost him his life.

Marley briefly lived at 34 Ridgmount Gardens in London in 1972, just as the Wailers were making a name for themselves, the BBC writes, and returned to live in the UK capital four more times during his life.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Decades after his passing, much of Marley's music remains popular, particularly songs such as No Woman, No Cry, Buffalo Soldier and One Love.

Marley became a global ambassador for reggae music, earning induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1994 and selling more than 20 million records - making him “the first international superstar to emerge from the so-called Third World”, Biography.com writes.

Having adopted Rastafarianism as his religion in the late 1960s, Marley also became a religious figure as well as a major record seller, and his iconography remains “symbolic”, PBS writes.

Marley died of skin cancer in Miami at the age of 36 in 1981.

Click on the gallery above for seven of his best quotes.