Jim Jones

“Constructing or adopting a belief system in which one is either God's prophet or God himself inflates the ego to monstrous proportions. Koresh was more deeply concerned with religion, Jim Jones with racial equality and an egalitarian society. But both compensated for isolation and lack of love in childhood by becoming infatuated with power, and both ended up with delusions of their own divinity.”

“A paranoid narcissist. Jim Jones was enthralling, persuasive and power-hungry. He thrived on attention, adoration and adulation. He was equal parts bully and charmer.”

“Jones began life as a pious man with a social conscience, who refused to judge people on grounds of wealth or race. But his vision of a socialist utopia was ultimately indistinguishable from his own manic desire for domination — and when that control was threatened, he was prepared to bring destruction down on all those around him.”

“Jim Jones was a self-obsessed American cult leader who manipulated the poor and vulnerable, demanded their complete obedience, and ordered the murder of those who questioned his integrity. At the end he killed or convinced nearly a thousand people — including two hundred children — to take their own lives in a jungle settlement in South America called ‘Jonestown’, constructed around his own warped and paranoid fantasy.”

“I have known Rev. Jim Jones of the Peoples Temple for ten years. During this time I have never known him once to refuse to help anyone in need, regardless of race, color or creed. He has always believed in lighting a candle rather than cursing the darkness, and his work here in San Francisco and the Bay Area, as well as his devotion to the people and mission in Guyana, are the mark of a man who has dedicated his whole life to the service and welfare of humankind.”

“Take our life from us. We laid it down. We got tired. We didn't commit suicide. We committed an act of revolutionary suicide protesting the conditions of an inhumane world.”

“If we can't live in peace, then let's die in peace.”

“So my opinion is that you be kind to children and be kind to seniors and take the potion like they used to take in ancient Greece and step over quietly because we are not committing suicide; it’s a revolutionary act. We can’t go back; they won’t leave us alone. They’re mow going back to tell more lies, which means more congressmen. And there’s no way, no way we can survive.”

“I have failed [...] I live for my people because they need me. But whenever they leave, they tell lies about the place.”

“If my wife said, I'm not going to be a communist, I'd say, well, forget it, by God, I'll forget you too.”

“I was ready to kill by the end of the third grade. I mean, I was so aggressive and hostile, I was ready to kill. Nobody gave me love, any understanding. In those days a parent was supposed to go with a child to school functions. There was some kind of school performance, and everybody's parent was there but mine. I'm standing there, alone. Always was alone.”

“Son of a bitchin’ no good lousy ass anarchistic capitalist bitch. That's what I say about my relatives, but you won't say it.”

“"Love is the only weapon." Shit! Bullshit! Martin Luther King died with love! Kennedy died talking about something he couldn't even understand, some kind of generalized love, and he never even backed it up. He was shot down. Bullshit! "Love is the only weapon with which I've got to fight." I've got a hell of a lot of weapons to fight! I've got my claws. I've got cutlasses. I've got guns. I've got dynamite. I've got a hell of a lot to fight! I'll fight! I'll fight!”

“If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin.”

“The young preacher once threw his Bible to the floor and yelled at his associates, "Too many people are looking at this instead of looking at me!"”

“My whole life I have suffered from poverty and have faced many disappointments and pain, like a man is used to. That is why I want to make other people happy and want them to feel at home.”

“For twenty-four times this year people up to ninety-six years of age have fell down, and they've gived up the ghost, and no God came out of the sky. Old nigger Jones just walked down, and said, "Arise! Arise! Take up your bed! Arise!"”

“You've seen three people drop dead and you saw them resurrected. Their attitudes were prejudiced and they would drop dead, but I resurrected them. And I've done it sixty-three times in eleven months this year in a public meeting.”

“Our government does not love its people.”

“When God is Socialism, God is love. [...] Socialism means that all the means of production that man has [...] are owned by the same people, the family of man, the family of God. There is only one source of ownership—love. No one can privately own the land. No one can privately own the air. It must be held in common. So then, that is love, that is God, Socialism”