Quotessence
Home / Authors / Bill Ayers
Bill Ayers

Bill Ayers Quotes

Professor

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleWarWorldThinkingYearsBarackIfsMovementWayStudentsVietnamSaidGuyKindMichiganEndsKnowsRightsUniversityDemocratic

Famous Bill Ayers Quotes

“In a wild and diverse democracy each of us should be trying to talk to lots and lots and lots of people outside of our own kind of comfort zone and community, and that injunction goes even further for political leaders. They should talk to everyone, they should listen to everyone, and at the end of the day they should have a mind of their own.”

PeopleShouldTryingMindKindEndsPoliticalCommunityLeaderDemocracyComfortShould HaveThe End Of The DayZoneDiverseComfort ZonePolitical LeadersAnd At The End Of The Day
Author:Bill Ayers
Create image

“What was on the agenda was school and social life and those kinds of things. So I was the middle of five kids. So I had the great advantage of being able to play up to the older kids and play down to the younger kids and I think that's part of what propelled me to become a teacher at some point in my life. But it was a comfortable childhood. It was a privileged childhood.”

ThinkingKindPlayKidsAbleSchoolSocialFiveTeacherChildhoodMiddleComfortableAdvantageAgendasPrivilegedSocial Life
Author:Bill Ayers
Create image

“When [my dad] was at the University of Michigan, my mom was a social-worker. As he rose, he voted for [Adlai] Stevenson initially. Then he voted for [Dwight] Eisenhower. Then he kept voting Republican until he voted for Barack Obama. So that's kind of amazing. But he was offered a cabinet post by Eisenhower in his second term. So he was moderate Republican. But if you asked him, he would've said, "I don't have any politics. I'm a business person." Mainstream, the American view, as he understood it.”

IfsKindPersonsSaidSocialTermViewsMomDadRepublicanUnderstoodRoseWorkersUniversityMy DadMy MomBarackPostsVotingMainstreamModeratesCabinetsMichiganSocial WorkerBusiness PersonDwightDwight EisenhowerUniversity Of MichiganVoting Republican
Author:Bill Ayers
Create image

“One of the things that happened that I think is noteworthy, my parents were pretty tolerant people given their position in society. They were pretty interesting about being interesting able to look at their children and think oh my children know things and they gave us a lot of sense of our own agency, and that may be a kind of a ruling class trait.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsLooksKindMayChildrenAbleGivenParentInterestingClassHappenedPositionMy ChildrenAgencyTraitsRuling
Author:Bill Ayers
Create image

“[Students for a Democratic Society] was on many campuses and it was a powerful organization. It was founded by Tom Hayden, who passed away very recently. It was one of the founders of SDS and that chief writer of the Port Huron Statement, which is still worth reading. It's kind of the Bernie Sanders campaign document in a funny way.”

WayKindStillsReadingPowerfulStudentsOrganizationDemocraticCampaignsStatementsChiefsTomsFoundersDocumentsPortCampusPassed AwayDemocratic SocietyWorth Reading
Author:Bill Ayers
Create image

“One question is: Who is the working class today, and how has it changed? Where are we in that? I don't have a knee-jerk kind of 1930s thing about we must build the unions and that's the way to the future. I'm writing this book right now called Pallin' Around, and the subtitle is: "Talking to the Tea Party." And frankly I find talking to the Tea Party exhilarating, I love it.”

WayWritingKindBookTodayPartyTalkingClassChangedRight NowUnionsTeaKneesWorking ClassJerkTea Party1930sExhilaratingSubtitles
Author:Bill Ayers
Create image