Activism Quotes
351 quotes
"The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference."
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest."
"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."
"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole."
"One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us."
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality.To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
"As my sufferings mounted I soon realized that there were two ways in which I could respond to my situation -- either to react with bitterness or seek to transform the suffering into a creative force. I decided to follow the latter course."
"Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don't give up the fight."
"Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence."
"Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room."
"The duty of youth is to challenge corruption."
"Sometimes your light shines so bright that it blinds people from seeing who you really are."
"People would rather believe than know."
"There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root."
"The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you'll get action."
"Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, 'She doesn't have what it takes."~ ' They will say, 'Women don't have what it takes."-"
"There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power structure as a nobody, giving it your all, and winning!"
"Most good things have already been said far too many times and just need to be lived."
"When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: if you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse."
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest."
"An educator should consider that he has failed in his job if he has not succeeded in instilling some trace of a divine dissatisfaction with our miserable social environment."
"Hide yourself in God, so when a man wants to find you he will have to go there first."
"God remains silent so that men and women may speak, protest, and struggle. God remains silent so that people may really become people. When God is silent and men and women cry, God cries in solidarity with them but doesn't intervene. God waits for the shouts of protest."
"You do it for yourself. You don’t expect to change the world. You don’t even expect to influence your family or your friends. You do it because you can’t not do it and be who you are. Or who you’re meant to be."
"What is needed now is action, not hopelessness"
"We are a nation divided which is obvious. The problem is, the division is keeping this monarchy in place."
"We are supposed to be ruled by ourselves, but I have yet to see any evidence of it in our lifetime."
"Life is a tragedy for those who feel and a comedy for those who think. It is vital to mourn the victims of this government, but not at the expense of losing our sense of humor. Our ability to laugh directly coincides with our ability to fight. If we make fun of it, we can transcend it."
"Although it might be that we can't expect change overnight, there was really a rapid shift in the way we view politics."
"These new ways of looking at ourselves politically redefine what it means to be American. It took our until now, very passive identity and turned us all into revolutionaries."
"We are more aware and politicized than ever before. There is very little ambiguity as to which side you are on."
"Yet the powers that be haven't quite considered the strength of our sheer numbers."
"Ultimately a government cannot defeat its people, no matter how much power they assume or how corrupt they are. For us, there is only opportunity."
"The people I choose to admire are not necessarily popular, not necessarily terribly well known, but they each have something to offer me, a lesson, a cautionary tale, an idea, an inspiration."
"Might does not equal right...fortunately, the majority holds power by a very small margin. There are certain things the majority has no right to mess with, certain things that are definitely worth fighting for--worth defending and worth offending."
"We have a date to rumble with stupidity, ignorance, prejudice, laziness, hatred, and greed."
"I am fighting when I'm sleeping. In my dreams, I must slay the dragon of European heterosexual male society, then I wake up in the morning and be an activist."
"I have to watch the news and movies about the people who I am not, then translate my struggle in order to make it palatable for those people who don't have to march but are sympathetic to my voice."
"I try every day to challenge myself further, and I believe in doing this I slay the monster (within) bit by bit. That's why being political is an essential part of my life. In the end, its all I have."
"We are no longer afraid to voice our opinions, to use our power, to pool our resources, to allow our differences to unite us instead of keeping us apart."
"The power of your story may not lie in its drama, but in its absolutely perfect relationship to your cause."
John Capecci and Timothy Cage, Living Proof: Telling Your Story to Make a Difference
"For a successful revolution it is not enough that there is discontent. What is required is a profound and thorough conviction of the justice, necessity and importance of political and social rights."
"It is the cry of the separate self, ‘What about me?’ As long as we keep acting from that place, it doesn’t matter who wins the war against (what they see as) evil. The world will not deviate from its death-spiral."
Charles Eisenstein, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible
"It is quite normal to fear what one most desires. We desire to transcend the Story of the World that has come to enslave us, that indeed is killing the planet. We fear what the end of that story will bring: the demise of much that is familiar.Fear it or not, it is happening already."
Charles Eisenstein, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible
"I am saying that there is a time to do, and a time not to do, and that when we are slave to the habit of doing we are unable to distinguish between them."
Charles Eisenstein, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible
"The state of interbeing is a vulnerable state. It is the vulnerability of the naive altruist, of the trusting lover, of the unguarded sharer. To enter it, one must leave behind the seeming shelter of a control-based life, protected by walls of cynicism, judgment, and blame."
Charles Eisenstein, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible
"Is it too much to ask, to live in a world where our human gifts go toward the benefit of all? Where our daily activities contribute to the healing of the biosphere and the well-being of other people?"
Charles Eisenstein, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible
"When both sides of a controversy revel in the defeat and humiliation of the other side, in fact they are on the same side: the side of war."
Charles Eisenstein, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible
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