20th-century Activist Quotes

Tree sitting is a last resort. When you see someone sitting in a tree trying to protect it, you know that every level of our society has failed.

Julia Butterfly Hill

To me, a good family is the basis of democracy and is democratic to the core. That's why the feminists had to destroy it.

In ancient Rome, the gladiators went into the arena with these words on their lips: let me win, but if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt. Today, all of you young athletes are in the arena. Many of you will win. But even more important, I know you will be brave and bring credit to your parents and to your country. Let us begin the Olympics, thank you.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver

From top to bottom, the Communist Party can't get through a single day without telling lies.

I don't feel like I can change the world. I don't even try. I only want to change this small life that I see standing in front of me, which is suffering.

I understand now my father really thought he was doing me good. Education means a lot to Palestinians. We've become some of the most educated people in the world through our diaspora. We've had to be. When you ain't got land, your degree may be your only solid ground. May father felt (feels) that being a doctor would give me security. How can I explain that I'm not safe from anything if I don't write?

Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth.
Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust.
Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace.
Let peace fill our heart, our world, our universe.

Put simply, if we do not redirect our extraction and production systems and change the way we distribute, consume, and dispose of our stuff-what I sometimes call the take-make-waste model-the economy as it is will kill the planet.

If we are to be a great democracy, we must all take an active role in our democracy. We must do democracy. That goes far beyond simply casting your vote. We must all actively champion the causes that ensure the common good.

Martin Luther King III

[About PETA] When we first started, we were able to take our undercover video to 60 Minutes or 20/20, and they would fight over it and do these thought-provoking exposés. Now that society has become less interested in these programs and more interested in sensationalism and the tabloids, we have to reinvent ourselves to keep our issues on the front burner; we have had to do a lot of theatrical things. … Much of what we do is geared toward kids, who have a great sense of justice. This is the first generation in which kids have grown up with this issue. Twenty-five years ago, parents were petrified when their kids went vegetarian—some still are.

All women are aware of that moment when suddenly the boys don't look at you. It's a fairly common thing, when suddenly you no longer attract that instant male attention because of the way you look. I never really knew how to enjoy beauty, but it took the form of a subconscious arrogance, expecting things, all muddled up with celebrity.

I am not for separatism from the United States. My motto is justice but not independence from or revolution against the United States.

It cost Andrei Dmitrievich 10 months of complete isolation and two hunger strikes over two months, which had a terrible effect on his health. The effects are still felt to this day.

I find that what is happening here [in Palestine] is ten times worse than what I had experienced in South Africa. This is Apartheid.

Arun Manilal Gandhi

It's our duty to honor the dead by bringing democracy to this country.

Jatuporn Prompan

If a man is pictured chopping off a woman's breast, it only gets an R rating; but if, God forbid, a man is pictured kissing a woman's breast, it gets an X rating. Why is violence more acceptable than tenderness?

Sally Struthers

There's a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls.

The chapter is poisoning the minds of little children. They will not respect their own religion in future. They will not turn out to be good Hindus and it will cause harm to the nation.

We would be more American on the day we permitted same-sex marriage than we were on the day before.

David Blankenhorn

When I was still a member of what is probably best termed the British Jihadi Network, a series of semi-autonomous British Muslim terrorist groups linked by a single ideology, I remember how we used to laugh in celebration whenever people on TV proclaimed that the sole cause for Islamic acts of terror like 9/11, the Madrid bombings and 7/7 was Western foreign policy. By blaming the government for our actions, those who pushed the 'Blair's bombs' line did our propaganda work for us. More important, they also helped to draw away any critical examination from the real engine of our violence: Islamic theology.

If the women's movement can be summed up in a single phrase, it is 'the right to choose'.

Whatever devotion to something else there was in him had been made impure by church taken as a weekly, dutiful thing.

Friends are an indispensable part of a meaningful life. They are the ones who share our burdens and multiply our blessings. A true friend sticks by us in our joys and sorrows. In good times and bad, we need friends who will pray for us, listen to us, and lend a comforting hand and an understanding ear when needed.

We're sick and tired of these stories. The reason they keep using the word 'cannibal' about us is because they think we're savages. It's like calling Germans today Nazis because of their past, or Britain a land where witches are burned at the stake, of child slavery and public executions. It's just lazy, racist journalism.

Peace comes from being able to contribute the best that we have, and all that we are, toward creating a world that supports everyone.
But it is also securing the space for others to contribute the best that they have and all that they are.