Activism Quotes

• If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Guilty

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• In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

  George Orwell

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Wisdom

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• Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope.

  Robert Kennedy

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Robert F. Kennedy (1998). “Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy”, Harcourt

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• I have never had illusions about the value of my individual contribution! I realized early that what a man or a woman does is built on what those who have gone before have done, that its real value depends on making the matter in hand a little clearer, a little sounder for those who come after. Nobody begins or ends anything. Each person is a link, weak or strong, in an endless chain. One of our gravest mistakes is persuading ourselves that nobody has passed this way before.

  Ida Tarbell

  Strong, Real, Mistake

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  Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life's light to be determined by the darkness around me.

  Sojourner Truth

  Determination, Fighting, Light

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• Alone, no one wins freedom.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Freedom, Winning, Groups

  Ursula K. Le Guin (2012). “The Tombs of Atuan”, p.140, Simon and Schuster

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• An activist is someone who cannot help but fight for something. That person is not usually motivated by a need for power or money or fame, but in fact is driven slightly mad by some injustice, some cruelty, some unfairness, so much so that he or she is compelled by some internal moral engine to act to make it better.

  Eve Ensler

  Fighting, Compassion, Mad

  Jody Williams, Eve Ensler (2013). “My Name is Jody Williams: A Vermont Girl's Winding Path to the Nobel Peace Prize”, p.9, Univ of California Press

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• Action expresses priorities.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Love, Family, Happiness

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• If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.

  Malcolm X

  Love, Inspirational, Life

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• Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!

  Tom Lehrer

  Hippie, Air, Water

  "Pollution" (song) (1965)

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• It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Inspirational, Motivational, Success

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  It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.

  Samuel Adams

  Inspirational, Life, Freedom

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• I have often wondered whether a person is justified in neglecting his own family to fight for opportunities for others.

  Nelson Mandela

  Family, Fighting, Opportunity

  Nelson Mandela (2011). “Nelson Mandela By Himself: The Authorised Book of Quotations”, p.147, Pan Macmillan

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• War, what's it good for? Absolutely nothing. Say it again.

  Edwin Starr

  Peace, War, Special

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• If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.

  John Lennon

  Love, Life, Happiness

  Guitar Player, August 01, 2004.

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  Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

  Margaret Mead

  Inspirational, Life, Friendship

  Margaret Mead, Robert B. Textor (2005). “The World Ahead: An Anthropologist Anticipates the Future”, p.12, Berghahn Books

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• Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.

  Mother Teresa

  Inspirational, Positive, Leadership

  "Women of Faith and Spirit: Their Words & Thoughts". Book edited by Dayna Beilenson and Mary Alice Warner, p. 42, 1987.

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  The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  Strength to Love (1963) ch. 3

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• Be The Peace You Wish To See In The World!

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  148 Copy quote

• To me, activism requires you to try very hard to open your eyes to the world as it is. See as much as you can, knowing that whatever you see is going to be partial. That you possess a partial consciousness in an infinite and expanding universe.

  Bill Ayers

  Eye, Expanding Universe, Knowing

  "The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Bill Ayers". Interview with Rachel DeWoskin, therumpus.net. December 1, 2013.

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• I think I'm an actor because I have very strong imagination and empathy. I never studied acting, but those two qualities are exactly the qualities that make for an activist.

  Susan Sarandon

  Strength, Strong, Thinking

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I guess because the shows were activist in their own way - the marriage of my public activism and my career activism, you know - people understand me very well. They also understand there's a very strong bipartisan part in all of this.

  Norman Lear

  Strong, Careers, People

  Interview with Tasha Robinson, www.avclub.com. April 27, 2005.

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• It was Dr. King's tireless activism that fostered our modern way of relating to one another.

  Wynton Marsalis

  Kings, Drs, Way

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• But as for activism, my parents did what they could, given the constraints, but were never involved in the causes I think of when I think of activists.

  Paul Farmer

  Thinking, Parent, Causes

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• Activism pays the rent on being alive and being here on the planet.

  Alice Walker

  Peace, Ubuntu, Alive

  Alice Walker (2013). “The World Has Changed: Conversations with Alice Walker”, p.100, The New Press

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