Quotes on “activism”

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.

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.

Arise, awake, stop not till the goal is reached.

You never change things by fighting the existing reality.To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

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.

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.

The duty of youth is to challenge corruption.

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root.

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.

People would rather believe than know.

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.