Quotessence
Home / Authors / Grace Lee Boggs
Grace Lee Boggs

Grace Lee Boggs Quotes

Author

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleThinkingRevolutionHumansWorldHuman BeingsTermWayCommunityIdeasDetroitSolutionsStatesCitiesNeedsImportantRecognizingTransitionWarChildren

Famous Grace Lee Boggs Quotes

“When you think of power, you think the state has power. When you look at it in terms of revolution, in terms of the state, you think of it in terms of Russia, the Soviet Union, and how those who struggled for power actually became victims of the state, prisoners of the state, and how that led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. We have to think of revolution much more in terms of transitions from one epoch to another. Talk about Paleolithic and Neolithic.”

ThinkingLooksStatesTermRevolutionVictimUnionsRussiaPrisonerTransitionSovietSoviet UnionEpochDissolution
Author:Grace Lee Boggs
Create image

“The idea of protest organizing, as summarized by community organizer Saul Alinsky, is that if we put enough pressure on the government, it will do things to help people. We don't realize that that kind of organizing worked only when the government was very strong, when the West ruled the world, relatively speaking. But with globalization and the weakening of the nation-state, that kind of organizing doesn't work.”

PeopleIfsWorldKindIdeasStatesEnoughHelpingGovernmentStrongNationsRealizingCommunityPressureWestProtestVery StrongGlobalizationWeakeningOrganizer
Author:Grace Lee Boggs
Create image

“Being a victim of oppression in the United States is not enough to make you revolutionary, just as dropping out of your mother's womb is not enough to make you human. People who are full of hate and anger against their oppressors or who only see Us versus Them can make a rebellion but not a revolution. The oppressed internalize the values of the oppressor. Therefore, any group that achieves power, no matter how oppressed, is not going to act differently from their oppressors as long as they have not confronted the values that they have internalized and consciously adopted different values.”

PeopleHumansLongDifferentMatterStatesEnoughMotherValuesHateUnitedUnited StatesGroupsAchieveRevolutionVictimOppressionRevolutionaryRebellionOppressedVersusAdoptedWombDroppingOppressorsDropping OutDifferent Values
Author:Grace Lee Boggs
Create image