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    Bono


Let me tell you something. I’ve had enough of Irish Americans who haven’t been back to their country in twenty or thirty years come up to me and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home; and the glory of the revolution, and the glory of dying for the revolution. Fuck the revolution! They don’t talk about the glory of killing for the revolution. What’s the glory of taking a man from his bed and gunning him down in front of his wife and his children? Where’s the glory in that? Where’s the glory of bombing a Remembrance Day parade of old-age-pensioners, their medals taken out and polished up for the day? Where’s the glory in that? To leave them dying, or crippled for life, or dead, under the rubble of the revolution that the majority of the people in my country don’t want. No more! Sing No more!

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Rattle and Hum (1987)

Statement to audience made before a live performance of "Sunday Bloody Sunday".
 
Added on 11-Jan-13 | Last updated 11-Jan-13
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I didn’t expect change to come so slow, so agonizingly slow. I didn’t realize that the biggest obstacle to political and social progress wasn’t the Free Masons, or the Establishment, or the boot heel of whatever you consider “the Man” to be, it was something much more subtle. As the Provost just referred to, a combination of our own indifference and the Kafkaesque labyrinth of “no”s you encounter as people vanish down the corridors of bureaucracy.

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Commencement Address, University of Pennsylvania (17 May 2004)
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Added on 18-Jan-13 | Last updated 18-Jan-13
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Every age has its massive moral blind spots. We might not see them, but our children will.

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Commencement Address, University of Pennsylvania (17 May 2004)
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Added on 25-Jan-13 | Last updated 25-Jan-13
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I know idealism is not playing on the radio right now, you don’t see it on TV, irony is on heavy rotation, the knowingness, the smirk, the tired joke. I’ve tried them all out but I’ll tell you this, outside this campus — and even inside it — idealism is under siege beset by materialism, narcissism and all the other -isms of indifference.

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Commencement Address, University of Pennsylvania (17 May 2004)
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Added on 1-Feb-13 | Last updated 1-Feb-13
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You know I used to think the future was solid or fixed, something you inherited like an old building that you move into when the previous generation moves out or gets chased out. But it’s not. The future is not fixed, it’s fluid. […] The world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape.

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Commencement Address, University of Pennsylvania (17 May 2004)
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Added on 8-Feb-13 | Last updated 8-Feb-13
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You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you reap, so you will sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Interview by Michka Assayas, Christianity Today (8 Aug2005)
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Added on 18-Oct-06 | Last updated 22-Oct-12
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It’s an amazing thing to think that ours is the first generation in history that really can end extreme poverty, the kind that means a child dies for lack of food in its belly. That should be seen as the most incredible, historic opportunity but instead it’s become a millstone around our necks. We let our own pathetic excuses about how it’s “difficult” justify our own inaction. Be honest. We have the science, the technology, and the wealth. What we don’t have is the will, and that’s not a reason that history will accept.

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Interview, World Association of Newspapers, World Press Freedom Day (3 May 2004)
 
Added on 4-Jan-13 | Last updated 4-Jan-13
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There is a continent — Africa — being consumed by flames.
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.

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Speech, National Prayer Breakfast (2 Feb 2006)
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Added on 28-Dec-12 | Last updated 28-Dec-12
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I will try to keep my homily brief. But be warned — I’m Irish.

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Speech, National Prayer Breakfast (2 Feb 2006)
 
Added on 15-Feb-13 | Last updated 15-Feb-13
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Seeing what religious people, in the name of God, did to my native land — and in this country, seeing God’s second-hand car salesmen on the cable TV channels, offering indulgences for cash — in fact, all over the world, seeing the self-righteousness roll down like a mighty stream from certain corners of the religious establishment. I must confess, I changed the channel. I wanted my MTV. Even though I was a believer. Perhaps because I was a believer.

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Speech, National Prayer Breakfast (2 Feb 2006)
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Added on 22-Feb-13 | Last updated 22-Feb-13
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Look, whatever thoughts you have about God, who He is or if He exists, most will agree that if there is a God, He has a special place for the poor. In fact, the poor are where God lives. Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone. I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill — I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff — maybe, maybe not. But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Speech, National Prayer Breakfast (2 Feb 2006)
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Added on 1-Mar-13 | Last updated 1-Mar-13
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God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.

Bono (b. 1960) Irish musician, philanthropist [b. Paul David Hewson]
Speech, National Prayer Breakfast (2 Feb 2006)
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Added on 8-Mar-13 | Last updated 8-Mar-13
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