Some say we should not engage in activism. Instead we should leave everything to our politicians and just vote for a change instead. But what do we do when there is no political will? What do we do when the politics needed are nowhere in sight?

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

Obama, of course, outspent McCain.

A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it’s been tested by recession and all manner of challenges – I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

A politician is an arse upon which everyone has sat except a man.

I will continue to believe that Israel’s security is paramount.

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.

Obamacare sucks, it can’t be fixed.

Spaniards were condemned for appeasing terrorism by voting for withdrawing troops from Iraq in the absence of U.N. authorization – that is, for taking a stand rather like that of 70 percent of Americans, who called for the U.N. to take the leading role in Iraq.

The trouble with Nixon is that he’s a serious politics junkie. He’s totally hooked and like any other junkie, he’s a bummer to have around, especially as President.

My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.

What I’m asking for is hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don’t matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.

I don’t follow politics much.

I 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?‘

Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.

The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn’t the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.

Nothing could make me forget what the Reagan years had actually been like.

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.

Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders.

Well, when you come down to it, I don’t see that a reporter could do much to a president, do you?

Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.

The rulers of the state are the only persons who ought to have the privilege of lying, either at home or abroad; they may be allowed to lie for the good of the state.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.

All people are born alike – except Republicans and Democrats.

One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President.

I became an actress because my mom wanted me to become an actress. It took me until my mid-30s to realize I actually didn’t. I actually wanted to write and direct and be more involved in politics and humanitarian issues.

A riot is the language of the unheard.

If 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.

I 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.

I wish I could say to all those people who consider themselves anarchists or radicals: Please join the nonviolent movement. This is how Gandhi freed India. If Gandhi freed India, we can certainly free the United States from our racism, misogyny, and bigotry.

Peoples do not defy repression and death, nor do they remain for nights on end protesting energetically, just because of merely formal matters.

It’s empowering to know I am doing something, I am taking a stand, I am disrupting.

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

Politics have no relation to morals.

And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet.

The 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.

Artists have a responsibility to speak and to act when governments fail, and if we don’t do that, we really deserve the world we get.

I don’t vote. I don’t do no voting.

Trump is a national disgrace and an international pariah.

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.

In the late 1960s, the masses were supposed to be passive, not entering into the public arena and having their voices heard.

I have not endorsed Trump and will not do so.

Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.

Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it.

There is no gambling like politics.

There are some members of the House leadership whose only mission in life is to demonize the president.

I have no further use for America. I wouldn’t go back there if Jesus Christ was President.

When I look back on what I did for the Left, I’m in a small way quite proud of some of it – I only wish I’d done more.

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander in chief.

Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he’d lie just to keep his hand in.

The advice I’ve been giving to people all my life – that you may not be interested in the dialectic but the dialectic is interested in you; you can’t give up politics, it won’t give you up – was the advice I should have been taking myself.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.

I’m not anti-middle-class in the slightest. Look at me! I am very pro people putting time and money and effort into trying to improve the world.

Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.

Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.