Activism And Protest Quotes & Sayings

Activists have not been passive. For decades, we have tried every tactic to shift the course of our governments. We have voted, written editorials and manifestos, donated money, held signs, protests in marches, blocked streets, shared links, signed petitions, held workshops, knitted scarves, learn to farm, turned off the television, programmed apps, engaged in direct action, committed vandalism, launched legal challenges against pipelines . . . and occupied the financial districts. All this has been for naught. A new approach to activism and a new kind of protest are desperately needed. — Micah White

It seemed that everyone else could mate, could fit their parts together in pleasant and productive ways, but that some almost indistinguishable difference in my anatomy and psyche set me slightly, yet irrevocably, apart. — Peter Cameron

When I gave birth to my son, something happened. It is a huge thing for a woman: a whole set of emotions you never had before arrives, and a love you never had before in your life is now on tap. — Lesley Manville

In the case of Tunisia, it was indeed this single act that sparked what had been long-standing active protest movements and moved them forward. But that's not so unusual. Let's look at our own history. Take the civil rights movement. There had been plenty of concern and activism about violent repression of blacks in the South, and it took a couple of students sitting in at a lunch counter to really set it off. Small acts can make a big difference when there is a background of concern, understanding, and preliminary activism. — Noam Chomsky

Poets can't march in protest or do that sort of thing. I feel that's against the rules, and pointless. If mankind wants a great big final bang, that's what it'll get. One should never protest against anything unless it's going to have an effect. None of those marches do. One should either be silent or go straight to the top. — Robert Graves

To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Rather than empowering all, consumer and shareholder activism gives greatest voice to those with the most money in their pockets, those who can switch from seller to seller with relative ease. Consumer and shareholder activism is a form of protest that favours the middle classes, an outpouring of the dissatisfaction of the bourgeoisie. — Noreena Hertz

One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. — Martin Luther King Jr.

If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity. — Albert Einstein

Gnostic tales tell of the homesickness of the soul, its yearning for its own milieu ... — Thomas Moore

To spend one's life being angry, and in the process doing nothing to change it, is to me ridiculous. I could be mad all day long, but if I'm not doing a damn thing, what difference does it make? — Charles Fuller

Say what you want but you NEVER say it with violence! — Gerard Way

Every crisis, actual or impending, needs to be viewed as an opportunity to bring about profound changes in our society. Going beyond protest organizing, visionary organizing begins by creating images and stories of the future that help us imagine and create alternatives to the existing system. — Grace Lee Boggs

Early genius, like early cabbage, does not head well. — Josh Billings

In Democracy, man exploits man; in Communism, it's the other way round. — Ken Wilber

There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power structure as a nobody, giving it your all, and winning! — Abbie Hoffman

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. — Elsa Tamez

A single whisper can be quite a disturbance when the rest of the audience is silent. — Anthony Marra

But I hate being a grandfather. It's indecent. In my mind's eye, I'm still twenty-five. Thirty-three max. Certainly not sixty-seven, reeking of decay and dashed hopes. My breath sour. My limbs in dire need of a lube job. And now that I've been blessed with a plastic hip-socket replacement, I'm no longer even biodegradable. Environmentalists will protest my burial. — Mordecai Richler

We've got to make change our national pastime and hold protests more regularly than weekend parties. — Rivera Sun

But in after days Cosmo repented of having so completely dropped the old gentleman's acquaintance; he was under obligation to him; and if a man will have to do only with the perfect, he must needs cut himself first, and go out of the world. — George MacDonald

An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law — Martin Luther King Jr.

Witnessing the moonrise each month, a person cannot resist noting a modest sense of optimism tugging at his or her enclosed capsule of bodily fluids. — Kilroy J. Oldster

Whenever Insecurity whispers In your ear, telling you how much you suck, tell it to shut the hell up. Then keep going forward anyway. — Rebecca O'Donnell

We should take comfort in two conjoined features of nature: first, that our world is incredibly strange and therefore supremely fascinating ... second, that however bizarre and arcane our world might be, nature remains potentially comprehensible to the human mind. — Stephen Jay Gould

I detect the activist returning with a vengence. — E.A. Bucchianeri

Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly. — Mahatma Gandhi

No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots. — Barbara Ehrenreich

And what is the Scientific Community doing about these problems, young people? THEY'RE CLONING SHEEP. Great! Just what we need! Sheep that look MORE ALIKE than they already do! Thanks a lot, Scientific Community! — Dave Barry

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. — Elie Wiesel

The unthinking glorification of digital activism makes its practitioners confuse priorities with capabilities. Getting people onto the streets, which may indeed become easier with modern communication tools, is usually the last stage of a protest movement, in both democracies and autocracies. One cannot start with protests and think of political demands and further steps later on. There are real dangers to substituting startegic and long-term action with spontaneous street marches. — Evgeny Morozov

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. — Elie Wiesel

The duty of youth is to challenge corruption. — Kurt Cobain

Stop praying for salvation when it is clear,
You are the saviours that we need around here. — Harry Whitewolf

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. — Edward Abbey

Your politics are so far right,
They're wrong. — Harry Whitewolf

Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. — Howard Zinn

It was civil disobedience that won them their civil rights. — Tariq Ali

Protest is when I say I don't like this. Resistance is when I put an end to what I don't like. Protest is when I say I refuse to go along with this anymore. Resistance is when I make sure everybody else stops going along too. — Ulrike Marie Meinhof

Happiness like this is frightening ... they only let you be this happy if they're preparing to take something away from you — Khaled Hosseini