Fixing a broken immigration system. Protecting our kids from gun violence. Equal pay for equal work, paid leave, raising the minimum wage. All these things still matter to hardworking families; they are still the right thing to do; and I will not let up until they get done.
Barack ObamaEvery once in a while, I get mad. ‚The Lorax‘ came out of my being angry. The ecology books I’d read were dull… In ‚The Lorax,‘ I was out to attack what I think are evil things and let the chips fall where they might.
Dr. SeussFor years, decades, the system has taught us to stay quiet. They’ve made us believe that those who take to the streets to speak up are crazy, criminals, troublemakers.
Bad BunnyGet up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.
Bob MarleyEverybody’s worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there’s a really easy way: stop participating in it.
Noam ChomskyI thought my life was mapped out. Research, living in the forest, teaching and writing. But in ’86 I went to a conference and realised the chimpanzees were disappearing. I had worldwide recognition and a gift of communication. I had to use them.
Jane GoodallParticularly conservative Christians, I was very angry that they were not involved more in the AIDS emergency.
BonoCivil disobedience’s main goal typically is to try to arouse and inspire others to join and do something. Well, sometimes that is a good tactic, sometimes not.
Noam ChomskyUntil the men of action clear out the talkers we who have social consciences are at the mercy of those who have none.
George Bernard ShawIn the late 1990s, some of the worst terrorist atrocities in the world were what the Turkish government itself called state terror, namely massive atrocities, 80 percent of the arms coming from the United States, millions of refugees, tens of thousands of people killed, hideous repression, that’s international terror, and we can go on and on.
Noam ChomskyHuman rights are not only violated by terrorism, repression or assassination, but also by unfair economic structures that creates huge inequalities.
Pope FrancisIn order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution.
Elon MuskIf an injustice requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the government machine.
Henry David ThoreauTo shake your rump is to be environmentally aware.
David ByrneI stand for anti-bigotry, anti-Semitism, and anti-racism.
George H. W. BushIt’s always going to be a fight for anyone who isn’t an older white man. I want to fight for anyone who doesn’t have a fight.
Kanye WestI was not an activist.
Joe BidenThe right of every American to first-class citizenship is the most important issue of our time.
Jackie RobinsonIt’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that there are people who can’t or won’t see what Black Lives Matter is trying to accomplish.
The WeekndThe reason why I am proud of my part in the punk movement is that I think it really did implant a message that was already there. The hippies told it to me, but punk made it something cool for people to stand up for, which is that we do not believe government, that we are against government.
Vivienne WestwoodWe are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.
Lyndon B. JohnsonIn terms of my involvement in ‚don’t ask, don’t tell‘ and marriage equality and anti-bullying and social emotional learning in schools – these are all things that arise out of my relationship with the world and with my fans.
Lady GagaPeoples do not defy repression and death, nor do they remain for nights on end protesting energetically, just because of merely formal matters.
Fidel CastroFor way too long the politicians and people in power have got away with not doing anything at all to fight the climate crisis and ecological crisis.
Greta ThunbergFor 25 years countless people have come to the U.N. climate conferences begging our world leaders to stop emissions and clearly that has not worked as emissions are continuing to rise. So I will not beg the world leaders to care for our future. I will instead let them know change is coming whether they like it or not.
Greta ThunbergAfrica is a continent in flames. And deep down, if we really accepted that Africans were equal to us, we would all do more to put the fire out. We’re standing around with watering cans, when what we really need is the fire brigade.
BonoThe fact is that ours is the first generation that can look disease and extreme poverty in the eye, look across the ocean to Africa, and say this, and mean it. We do not have to stand for this. A whole continent written off – we do not have to stand for this.
BonoI submit that 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 law.
Martin Luther King, Jr.It seems the only way to gain attention today is to organize a march and protest something.
Billy GrahamI think my message to the politicians who have within their power the ability to make change is, ‚Do you really, really not care about the future of your great-grandchildren? Because if we let the world continue to be destroyed the way we are now, what’s the world going to be like for your great-grandchildren?‘
Jane GoodallI am such a political person.
Madeleine AlbrightThis is a wonderful planet, and it is being completely destroyed by people who have too much money and power and no empathy.
Alice WalkerWhen I joined the freedom movement in Mississippi in my early 20s, it was to come to the aid of sharecroppers, like my parents, who had been thrown off the land they’d always known – the plantations – because they attempted to exercise their ‚democratic‘ right to vote.
Alice WalkerPeople tell me that they are so hopeful when they see me and other children ‚school-striking,‘ and they say, ‚Oh the children are going to save us.‘ But no, we aren’t. We are too young to be able to do that. We don’t have time to wait for us to grow up and fix this in the future.
Greta ThunbergOn October 15, 1965, an estimated 70,000 people took part in large-scale anti-war demonstrations.
Noam ChomskyThere is no question that liberals do an impressive job of expressing concern for blacks. But do the intentions expressed in their words match the actual consequences of their deeds?
Thomas SowellI have always hated slavery, I think, as much as any abolitionist. I have been an Old Line Whig. I have always hated it, but I have always been quiet about it until this new era of the introduction of the Nebraska Bill began.
Abraham LincolnEvery reform movement has a lunatic fringe.
Theodore RooseveltPrint some money and give it to us for the rain forests.
Vivienne WestwoodAnd we have done more in the two and a half years that I’ve been in here than the previous 43 Presidents to uphold that principle, whether it’s ending ‚don’t ask, don’t tell,‘ making sure that gay and lesbian partners can visit each other in hospitals, making sure that federal benefits can be provided to same-sex couples.
Barack ObamaStrike against war, for without you no battles can be fought!
Helen KellerI grew up hearing stories about my grandmother – my mother’s mother – who used to go to villages in India in her little VW bug. My grandmother would take a bullhorn and make sure women in these villages knew how to access birth control.
Kamala HarrisYou can jail a Revolutionary, but you can’t jail the Revolution.
Huey NewtonThe ‚peace movement‘ exists only in the fantasies of the paranoid.
Noam ChomskyI know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin‘ hell, but as long as they ain’t free, I ain’t free.
Muhammad AliThe vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.
Lyndon B. JohnsonI am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.
Albert EinsteinDuring the 60’s, I was, in fact, very concerned about the civil rights movement.
Joe BidenWall Street apparently takes and then forgets, and then comes after the guns of law-abiding American citizens and small businesses.
John KennedyI am worrying about my country. I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something.
Haruki MurakamiActually oddly enough, I think my work, the activism, will be forgotten. And I hope it will. Because I hope those problems will have gone away.
BonoAs long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.
Nelson MandelaThe question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremists we will be… The nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists.
Martin Luther King, Jr.The symbolism of the climate strike is that if you adults don’t give a damn about my future, I won’t either.
Greta ThunbergTo summarize, draft resistance can make use of the inegalitarian nature of American society as a technique for increasing the cost of American aggression, and it threatens values that are important to those in a decision-making position.
Noam ChomskyI think war is so incredibly backward, and I don’t think it’s intelligent, and it’s not sane. So why would you want to support it?
Alice WalkerIf you care about other people, you might try to organize to undermine power and authority. That’s not going to happen if you care only about yourself.
Noam ChomskyYou can rebel in different ways. Civil disobedience is rebelling. As long as it’s peaceful, of course.
Greta ThunbergWe are not going to be satisfied by politicians saying ‚we support you‘ and then walking away. We won’t be satisfied until they meet our demands and act. That’s why simply taking a selfie or posting support on Twitter isn’t enough. That’s why we have to keep striking.
Greta ThunbergAmerica is the student who defies the odds to become the first in a family to go to college – the citizen who defies the cynics and goes out there and votes – the young person who comes out of the shadows to demand the right to dream. That’s what America is about.
Barack Obama