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Activism Quotes

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Activism Quotes

“MCA: Middle Class Activist (The Sonnet) I don't know the meaning of socialism, But progress without society is insanity. I don't know the meaning of capitalism, But catering to luxury produces disparity. I don't know the meaning of woke, But no life is complete without community. I don't know the meaning of philosophy, But intellect is useless without amity. I don't own many fancy gadgets, Affording essentials I stand without greed. I'll probably never set foot on MARS, On earth I'll be serving the abandoned in need. High and mighty tech won't make this world better, Till we place humanity at our highest altar.”

PoetryCapitalismSocial JusticeActivismSocialismActivistSocialistWorking ClassSonnetDisparity
Book:Solo Standing on Guard: Life Before Law
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“When I was in Vietnam, so many of our villages were being bombed. Along with my monastic brothers and sisters, I had to decide what to do. Should we continue to practice in our monasteries, or should we leave the meditation halls in order to help the people who were suffering under the bombs? After careful reflection, we decided to do both--to go out and help people and to do so in mindfulness. We called it engaged Buddhism. Mindfulness must be engaged. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. Otherwise, what is the use of seeing?”

ActionMeditationMindfulnessActivismVietnamVietnam War
Book:Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
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“The truth is, I do have a chance to fight for something in the place I came from. Something akin to what I continue to fight and hope for in America. Something bigger than myself. And yet, I stay. It's a decision I continue to make, one that continues to haunt me. And even if it is a choice, there's no weight in it. It's meaningless apart from selfish intent.”

AmericaPoliticsActivismSelfishnessAmerican DreamImmigration Experience
Book:Socialist Realism
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“Army of Lovers (The Sonnet) What's needed is an army of lovers, To set this world on fire, A fire that burns prejudice to ashes, And sparks a humanitarian desire. Lovers devoted to the path of sacrifice, Pure and chaste serving without reward, Pursuing the one impossible dream, The dream of humanizing the entire world. Not a trace of self within, Not a kernel of self-obsession, Uncorrupted and unbending to the bone, Wake up and be the living ascension. Drink from the fountain of service effulgent. Annihilated for others we turn omnipresent.”

SacrificePoemPrejudiceHumanismHumanitarianActivismService Of HumanityActivistSelflessSonnet
Book:Heart Force One: Need No Gun to Defend Society
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“You can’t run away from this fight. You can’t hide. You can’t pretend it’s not happening. You can’t pray it goes away. You can’t close your eyes and ignore it. You can’t bury your head in the sand. You’re in this war whether you like it or not. If you’re a dove, you had better get real and evolve into a retaliator. You need to fight back. You need to stand up for yourself and your cause. You need to stop being lunch. Stop being nice and polite. Your enemies aren’t. Stop being weak and meek. Your enemies aren’t. Stop being humble and respectful of all opinions. Your enemies aren’t. Stop being gentlemanly or ladylike. This is a dirty war. We have all been dragged into the gutters and sewers. You need to fight your way out or drown in shit. Retaliate. Don’t sit there and take it. Stop being a pussy. Become a lion and roar. Let the world hear your voice.”

ActionCommitmentActivismTolerancePassivityCause Movement
Book:Take Them to the Morgue
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“No movement can succeed if it is populated by the half-hearted, the weak-willed, those who can always find other things to do with their time, whose priority is always themselves. These are the Ignavi. Go and be a liability to someone else. Hyperianism wants the finest, not the worst. If you can’t be serious about committing to something, don’t bother. Just go back to bed and let the world pass you by.”

EffortMovementActiveActivismPassiveIgnaviHyperianism
Book:Take Them to the Morgue
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“One cannot be free, never, not ever, in an unfree world, and in the course of redefining family, church, power relations, all the institutions which inhabit and order our lives, there is no way to hold onto privilege and comfort. To attempt to do so is destructive, criminal, and intolerable.”

FreedomFeminismPrivilegeActivism
Book:Last Days at Hot Slit: The Radical Feminism of Andrea Dworkin
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“Many domestic activists focus their efforts on top-down changes such as national elections and state policies--and despair when they fail to reach their goals....Bottom-up activism can help address the racial, ethnic, religious, and political issues that divide not just places like Congo or Colombia, but also the societies of non-war countries.”

ActivismGrassroots OrganizingBottom UpGrassroots Advocacy
Book:The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider's Guide to Changing the World
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“I don’t think we’re as far apart as you say. I mean, when the shit comes down, we’ll both be on the same side of the barricades.’ ‘The shit is already down.’ ‘I mean when people are dying in the streets.’ ‘Kate, people are dying in the streets. It’s not the movies, where the world divides into freedom fighters and brownshirts. Here in New York City there are people who take action and people who do nothing. Doing nothing is a position. It means giving approval without having actively to say so.”

PrivilegeActivismDirect Action
Book:People in Trouble
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“Sonnet of Phony Activism Those who give their life to society, Never call themselves activist. Those who work night and day for others, Rarely identify as reformist. It’s only the vane, lame and the shallow, Who draw attention with phony activism. Those who actually care for society, Live a life of sacrifice beyond definition. Activist and woke are actually code, That says, look at me I am so great. Real greats don't care about labels, They're martyred for others without regret. The world doesn't need more phony label. What's needed is humans being accountable.”

PoetryGreatnessActivismActivistPhilanthropySocial ResponsibilitySonnetCelebrityCelebritiesCelebrity Culture
Book:Hometown Human: To Live for Soil and Society
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“By writing articles, opinion pieces, and letters to the editor, your reasonable, science-based arguments and personal stories can reach a massive audience and help counter misinformation”

ActivismAdvocacy
Book:An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power: Your Action Handbook to Learn the Science, Find Your Voice, and Help Solve the Climate Crisis
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“[The young communist] must always pay attention to the mass of human beings he lives among. Every Young Communist must fundamentally be hu­man, so human that he draws closer to humanity's best qualities. Through work, through study, and through ongoing solidarity with the people and all the peoples of the world, he distills the best of what man is. Developing to the utmost the sensitivity to feel an­guish when a human being is murdered in any corner of the world and to feel enthusiasm when a new banner of freedom is raised in any corner of the world. [Applause] The Young Communist cannot be limited by national borders. The Young Communist must practice proletarian internationalism and feel it as his own.”

RevolutionActivismSocialismCommunismRevolutionaryCubaAntiracismInternationalismRevolutionariesChe Guevara
Author:Che Guevara
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“Talking to a university audience recently I expressed my faith in the power of white people to speak out against racism, challenging and changing prejudice--empathetically stating that I definitely believe we can all change our minds and our actions. I stressed that this faith was not rooted in a utopian longing but, rather, that I believed this because of our nation's history of the many individuals who have offered their lives in the service of justice and freedom. When challenged by folks who claimed these individuals were exceptions, I agreed. But I then talked about the necessity of changing our thinking so that we see ourselves as being like the one who does change rather than among those who refuse to change. What made these individuals exceptional was not that they were any smarter or kinder than their neighbors but that they were willing to live the truth of their values.”

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Book:All About Love: New Visions
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“Without or­ganization, ideas, after some initial momentum, start losing their effect. They become routine, degenerate into conformity, and end up simply a memory. I raise this warning because too often, in this short but rich period of our revolution, many great initiatives have failed. They have been forgotten because of the lack of an organiza­tional apparatus needed to keep them going and bring them to frui­tion.”

PoliticsActivismSocialismCommunismSocial Movements
Author:Che Guevara
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“How did the women's movement succeed in bringing peace while the men's warring factions could not? Leymah's story says it all: when the women were wounded, they were able to absorb their pain without passing it on, but when the men were wounded they needed to make someone pay. That's what fed the cycle of war. I'm not saying that women alone have the power of peacemaking and men alone are the cause of war. Absolutely not. I am saying that in this case, . . . when the women found their voice, the men found their power to make peace. Each found the traditional attributes of the other inside themselves. The men were able to do something the women had done -- agree not to retaliate -- and the women were able to do something the men had done, which is to assert their views about how society should be run. Bringing these two qualities together is what brought peace.”

FeminismActivism
Book:The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World
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“Leymah's friend who came back to cry with her sisters, and all the women who ever accepted their pain without passing it on were not just sharing their grief but finding their voice because their voice was buried underneath their grief. If we can face our pain, we can find our voice, and it is so much easier to face our pain and find our voice together.”

FeminismActivism
Book:The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World
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“There are too many people working to better the lives of those who already have more than they need, yet those who are in need of real help spend each day with no hope or help to speak of - why my friend - why - they are waiting for you - they are wailing for you - don't you hear them - don't you hear their tears dropping on the lifeless soil beneath their feet! You worry about philosophical questions like, if a tree falls in a forest and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a sound - yet you pay no attention to real questions of life and death that actually require your intervention more than any philosophical question in the world! Why - I ask you again - why - why is it that philosophy, technology and argumentation have more grip over your psyche than the actual troubles of the people! Don't answer me - just think - think and when you have thought enough, shred all shallow philosophical pomp and rush right away to the helpless, the forgotten, the destitute as the real, practical answer to their life.”

Human RightsHumanitarianActivismHelping OthersActivistHumanitarianismHumanitarian CrisisDestituteHuman Rights ViolationsHuman Rights Activists
Book:When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation
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“The more that injustice, exploitation, inequality, unemployment, poverty, hunger, and misery prevail in human society, the more Che's stature will grow. The more that the power of imperialism, hegemonism, domina­tion, and interventionism grow, to the detriment of the most sa­cred rights of the peoples-especially the weak, backward, and poor peoples who for centuries were colonies of the West and sources of slave labor-the more the values Che defended will be upheld. The more that abuses, selfishness, and alienation exist; the more that Indians, ethnic minorities, women, and immigrants suffer dis­ crimination; the more that children are bought and sold for sex or forced into the workforce in their hundreds of millions; the more that ignorance, unsanitary conditions, insecurity, and homelessness prevail-the more Che's deeply humanistic message will stand out. The more that corrupt, demagogic, and hypocritical politicians exist anywhere, the more Che's example of a pure, revolutionary, and consistent human being will come through. The more cowards, opportunists, and traitors there are on the face of the earth, the more Che's personal courage and revolution­ary integrity will be admired. The more that others lack the ability to fulfill their duty, the more Che's iron willpower will be admired. The more that some individuals lack the most basic self-respect, the more Che's sense of honor and dignity will be admired. The more that skeptics abound, the more Che's faith in man will be admired. The more pessimists there are, the more Che's optimism will be admired. The more vacillators there are, the more Che's audacity will be admired. The more that loafers squander the prod­uct of the labor of others, the more Che's austerity, his spirit of study and work, will be admired.”

RevolutionActivismSocialismCommunismCubaFidel CastroRevolutionariesChe Guevara
Author:Fidel Castro
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“Without the voices from the edges publicly demanding, wailing, and protesting, institutions and systems that engage in exclusionary, oppressive, or marginalizing practices continue to operate with apathy or impunity. Destructive systems do not change themselves, and those working for change within these systems can’t do it alone.”

KindnessRacismSocial JusticeActivismProtestRacism In AmericaInstitutional OppressionSocial UnrestInstitutional Change
Book:In Defense of Kindness: Why It Matters, How It Changes Our Lives, and How It Can Save the World
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“Kindness, and the commitment to see the other as deserving of human dignity, demands of us to protest, resist, and do all that we can to fight that which says otherwise. Not only do we have the power to make sure that things do not get worse, but over the long haul, we also have the power to make long-lasting change for good. I need you. We need one another. We can only do this together.”

HumanityKindnessDignityActivismProtest
Book:In Defense of Kindness: Why It Matters, How It Changes Our Lives, and How It Can Save the World
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“She tries to walk not too fast and not too slow. She doesn't want to attract any attention. She pretends she doesn't hear the whistles and catcalls and lewd comments. Sometimes she forgets and leaves her house in a skirt or a tank top because it's a warm day and she wants to feel warm air on her bare skin. Before long, she remembers. She keeps her keys in her hand, three of them held between her fingers, like a dull claw. She makes eye contact only when necessary and if a man should catch her eye, she juts her chin forward, makes sure the line of her jaw is strong. When she leaves work or the bar late, she calls a car service and when the car pulls up to her building, she quickly scans the street to make sure it's safe to walk the short distance from the curb to the door. She once told a boyfriend about these considerations and he said, 'You are completely out of your mind.' She told a new friend at work and she said, 'Honey you're not crazy. You're a woman.”

WomenLife QuotesActivismTruth QuotesWoman QuotesWomen And Men
Book:Difficult Women
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“I am the essence of determination - I am speculation, aspiration, the spirit of ascension - I am the peace call of evolution - I am togetherness itself sisters and brothers - I am life, I am breath, I am humanite, a human dynamite that destroys every inhumanity that crosses its path.”

HumanitarianActivismOnenessActivistInclusionWorld PeaceHumanitarianismGlobal HarmonyHuman Rights DayHuman Rights Activists
Book:When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation
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“No Throne, No Kingdom (The Sonnet) I need no throne, I need no kingdom, Human hearts are my heavenly abode. I need no badge, I need no scepter, Reason is my partner, warmth my zip code. I need no praise, I need no offering, A life of service is my paradise. I need no reward, I need no award, Nothing can put a price on sacrifice. I know no etiquette, I know no manners, These are all constructs of shallowness. Humanity ought to drive behavior, Humility destroys all narrowness. To forge wholeness and sanity is our mission. Ending all falsity let's be incarnate integration.”

PoemHumanismHumanitarianActivismService Of HumanityActivistInclusionIntegrationSonnetShallowness
Book:When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation
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“Adopt A Neighborhood (The Sonnet) Adopt a neighborhood, Make their problems your own. This is the only road to life, Society’s hope is you alone. Charity, security and world peace, All these are cosmetic theory. When you learn to live as human, You'll see their actual foolery. When our voices combine, All noise turns melody of heavens. Joy is amplified a hundred times, We lose sense of all our burdens. Diversity and progress will come alright, Once you perceive beyond your selfish sight.”

JoyDiversityBrainy QuotesActivismActivistInclusionSocial ResponsibilitySocial WorkSonnetGlobal Harmony
Book:When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation
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“The Final Solution (A Sonnet) O new people, o new humanizers, The world has been waiting for you long. Waiting for your dawn with deepest zeal, Society is weary yet tries to be strong. Now rise o makers of civilization, Replenish this death valley with your sanctity. Make rigidity and prejudice quiver, Sanitize humanity with rapids of indivisibility. The sun has gone dark, the moon lost its glory, All are waiting for your galvanizing advent. These deserts can no more sustain life, You alone are hope and the last encouragement. Walk boldly as the awakening of revolution. Wake up from indifference and be the final solution.”

PrejudiceSocial JusticeHuman RightsHumanitarianActivismDiscriminationActivistSocial IssuesSonnet
Book:When Veins Ignite: Either Integration or Degradation
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“Many Romani activists are in fact of mixed parentage. They are often individuals who grew up within the mainstream culture, ashamed of, or afraid to acknowledge, their Romani family connections. Others are persons of Romani background who acquired an education and spent the early years of their careers capitalizing on their Romani connections by engaging in academic research on Romani culture or providing expertise to public services and institutions on Romani society. They feel a strong commitment to challenging prejudice and to improving the destiny of their people. But many years of their lives have been spent struggling for recognition and acknowledgement among their non-Romani colleagues and peers.”

ActivismRomaMixed RaceRomaniRomani Gypsy
Book:I Met Lucky People: The Story of the Romani Gypsies
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