Social Change Quotes - Page 3

• We live in a moment of history where change is so speeded up that we begin to see the present only when it is already disappearing.

  R. D. Laing

  Change, Historical, Aging

  R.D Laing (1967). “The Politics of Experience”

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• You just do it one step at a time.

  Marian Wright Edelman

  Steps, One Step At A Time, Women Leadership

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• Be the trouble you want to see in the world.

  Joey Comeau

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  "A Softer World". Webcomic by Joey Comeau,

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• I don't think Dr. King helped racial harmony, I think he helped racial justice. What I profess to do is help the oppressed and if I cause a load of discomfort in the white community and the black community, that in my opinion means I'm being effective, because I'm not trying to make them comfortable. The job of an activist is to make people tense and cause social change.

  Al Sharpton

  Jobs, Kings, Mean

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  In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it.

  Ernst Fischer

  Change, Art, Society

  Ernst Fischer, Anna Bostock (1978). “The necessity of art: a Marxist approach”, Puffin

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• I think of myself as a comedian who has the pleasure of writing jokes about things that I actually care about, and that's really it. I have great respect for people who are in the front lines and the trenches of trying to enact social change, but I am far lazier than that.

  Jon Stewart

  Writing, Thinking, People

  "Jon Stewart, in his own words" by Brandon Griggs, www.cnn.com. August 5, 2015.

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• One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Change, Sleep

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• I have great respect for people who are in the front lines and the trenches of trying to enact social change. I am far lazier than that.

  Jon Stewart

  People, Trying, Lines

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• The impulse of humanity toward social progress is like the movement in the currents of a great water system, from myriad sources and under myriad circumstances and conditions, beating onward, ever onward toward its eternity, the Ocean.

  Anna Julia Cooper

  Ocean, Water, Humanity

  Anna Julia Cooper, Charles C. Lemert, Esme Bhan (1998). “The Voice of Anna Julia Cooper: Including A Voice from the South and Other Important Essays, Papers, and Letters”, p.339, Rowman & Littlefield

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• I think social change work is some of the most extraordinary dreaming that any of us have the possibility of doing.

  Amber Hollibaugh

  Dream, Thinking, Possibility

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• When your focus is social change and not financial change why wouldn't you want to share that openly? Innovation only succeeds when it's shared.

  Cameron Sinclair

  Focus, Innovation, Want

  "Quotes of the day: Cameron Sinclair". www.cnn.com. July 11, 2008.

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• So many social changes are as irreversible as the reaction when sodium is thrown into water.

  Gunnar Myrdal

  Water, Sodium, Social

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• Cynicism is the largest obstacle to social change. Cynicism is dangerous because people throw up their hands and say, "Well it's not possible. Why should I even try?"

  Robert Reich

  Hands, People, Trying

  Source: collider.com

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• Social change occurs when the gap between the ideals that people hold and the reality that they see every day gets too large.

  Robert Reich

  Reality, People, Gaps

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• A society which makes provision for participation in its good of all its members on equal terms and which secures flexible readjustment of its institutions through interaction of the different forms of associated life is in so far democratic. Such a society must have a type of education which gives individuals a personal interest in social relationships and control, and the habits of mind which secure social changes without introducing disorder.

  John Dewey

  Giving, Mind, Different

  John Dewey (2015). “Democracy and Education”, p.102, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• The ideal society has yet to be built - one which balances nicely collective well-being and individual well-being.

  Peace Pilgrim

  Balance, Individual, Ideal Society

  Peace Pilgrim (1992). “Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words”, p.105, Friends of Peace PIlgrim

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• Rage is by no means an automatic reaction to misery and suffering as such; no one reacts with rage to an incurable disease or to an earthquake or, for that matter, to social conditions that seem to be unchangeable. Only where there is reason to suspect that conditions could be changed and are not does rage arise.

  Hannah Arendt

  Anger, Mean, Earthquakes

  Hannah Arendt (1972). “Crises of the Republic: Lying in Politics; Civil Disobedience; On Violence; Thoughts on Politics and Revolution”, p.170, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• What's clear - and exciting - is that communication for social change is growing.

  Aaron Koblin

  Communication, Growing, Social

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• When a woman has the opportunity to speak truth to power, it's important that she does, even if it's just trying to get a crosswalk in her neighborhood. That's how social change happens!

  Kirsten Gillibrand

  Opportunity, Important, Trying

  "Meet Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (and Take Her Work Advice)". Interview with Cindi Leive, www.glamour.com. March 11, 2014.

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• Every strategy for real social change - land reform, education, public health, the equitable distribution of natural resources ... - has been cleverly, cunningly, and consistently scuttled and rendered ineffectual by those castes and that class of people which has a stranglehold on the political process.

  Arundhati Roy

  Real, Land, Class

  Arundhati Roy (2003). “War Talk”, p.41, South End Press

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• In childbirth, as in other human endeavors, fashions start with the rich, are then adopted by the aspirant middle class with an assist from the ever-watchful media, and may or may not eventually filter down to the poor.

  Jessica Mitford

  Fashion, Media, Class

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• Darkroom: A Memoir in Black and White is remarkable for its truth-telling about two important issues concerning Alabama's past and present: the civil rights movement and immigration. These stories, rendered through the words and eyes of a young Latina girl who came from Argentina to Marion, Alabama, are made vivid and immediate through Weaver's highly accessible drawings and dialogue. This is a book-about maturation, family, education, and social change-every schoolchild, parent, and citizen should experience.

  Sena Jeter Naslund

  Girl, Book, Eye

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• The creative process ignites our imagination, and I believe that that same imagination is what will propel us forward with issues of social change. I do think we have to acknowledge that we are a very capitalistic and consumptive nation, and that talk about conservation or issues of sustainability is never going to be popular with the dominant culture because it means checks and balances on an economy that is reserved for the dollar, rather than an economy that honors and respects spiritual resources and the right of all life to participate on the planet, not just our species.

  Terry Tempest Williams

  Spiritual, Believe, Mean

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• Thinking about profound social change, conservatives always expect disaster, while revolutionaries confidently anticipate utopia. Both are wrong.

  Carolyn Heilbrun

  Thinking, Profound, Revolutionary

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• Steven Tepper's Not Here, Not Now, Not That! offers invaluable insights into how social change and uncertainty drive protests over art. With fresh data and perspectives, Tepper makes a compelling case that cultural conflicts are largely homegrown, tied to each community's shifting demographics and values. It's an eye-opening work.

  Ken Paulson

  Art, Eye, Data

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