Activist

Explore 245 quotes by Activists

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed.

Steve Biko

More information about this quote

Topic

Tools of oppression Oppression Raising consciousness Liberation

Speaker

Steve Biko

Medium

Esssay

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Biko, Steve. "White Racisim and Black Consciousness." Jan. 1971, Abe Bailey Institute of Interracial Studies, Cape Town, South Africa, Africa.

Current Citation

Biko, Steve. "Black Consciousness and the Quest for a True Humanity." I Write What I Like: Selected Writings, edited by Aelred Stubbs. University of Chicago Press, 2002.

Meek wifehood is no part of my profession;
I am your friend, but never your possession.

Vera Brittain

More information about this quote

Topic

Marriage Gender relations Men and women

Author

Vera Brittain

Source

Married Love

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1926 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Brittain, Vera. "Married Love." Poems of the War and After. Victor Gollancz, 1934.

God of forgiveness, do not forgive those murderers of Jewish children here.

Elie Wiesel

Quoted in The Times of London

Spoken at Auschwitz.

More information about this quote

Topic

The Holocaust Forgiveness

Speaker

Elie Wiesel

Source

The Times of London

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

1995 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Wiesel, Elie. The Times. 27 Jan. 1995.

Affirmative action really isn't about preferential treatment for blacks, but about removing preferential treatment whites have received through history.

Julian Bond

Speech at 89th NAACP Annual Convention, July 12, 1998

More information about this quote

Topic

Affirmative action

Speaker

Julian Bond

Source

Speech at 89th NAACP Annual Convention, July 12, 1998

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1998 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Bond, Julian. Speech at the NAACP annual convention. 89th NAACP Annual Convention. 12 July 1998, Atlanta, GA, USA.

The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place. All through the long history of Earth it has been an area of unrest where waves have broken heavily against the land, where the tides have pressed forward over the continents, receded, and then returned. For no two successive days is the shore line precisely the same.

Rachel Carson

More information about this quote

Topic

The beach Ocean and sea

Author

Rachel Carson

Source

The Edge of the Sea

Genre

Nature writing Scientific literature

Language

English

Time

1955 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Carson, Rachel. The Edge of the Sea. Houghton Mifflin, 1955, ch. 1.

Politics hates a vacuum. If it isn't filled with hope, someone will fill it with fear.

Naomi Klein

More information about this quote

Topic

Nature abhors a vacuum Demagoguery Populism Politics

Author

Naomi Klein

Source

The Guardian

Medium

Newspaper

Language

English

Time

2003 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Klein, Naomi. "From Pots to Politics." The Guardian, 11 May 2003, www.theguardian.com/world/2003/may/12/argentina.comment

When a just cause reaches its flood-tide... Whatever stands in the way must fall before its overwhelming power.

Carrie Chapman Catt

More information about this quote

Topic

Political progress Progress

Speaker

Carrie Chapman Catt

Source

Is Woman Sufferage Progressing?

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1911 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Catt, Carrie Chapman. "Is Woman Suffrage Progressing?" Sixth Convention of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance. 13 June 1911, Stockholm, Sweden.

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.

Upton Sinclair

More information about this quote

Topic

Self-interest Selfishness Incentives

Author

Upton Sinclair

Source

I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1935 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Sinclair, Upton. I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked. Farrar & Rinehart, 1935.

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death. It's indifference.

Elie Wiesel

Quoted in U.S. News and World Report

More information about this quote

Topic

Indifference Love and hate

Speaker

Elie Wiesel

Source

U.S. News and World Report

Medium

Interview Magazine

Language

English

Time

1986 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Wiesel, Elie. Quoted in "One Must Not Forget." Interviewed by Alvin P. Sanoff. US News & World Report, 27 Oct. 1986.

It takes no compromising to give people their rights... It takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.

Harvey Milk

More information about this quote

Topic

Human rights Oppression

Speaker

Harvey Milk

Language

English

Time

1973 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Milk, Harvey. Speech to the Joint International Longshoremen & Warehousemen's Union of San Francisco and to the Lafayette Club. 30 Sept. 1973, San Francisco, CA, USA.

The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave.

James Connolly

More information about this quote

Topic

Oppression of women Men and women Anti-capitalism Capitalism

Author

James Connolly

Source

The Re-Conquest of Ireland

Medium

Pamphlet

Genre

Political literature

Language

English

Time

1915 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Connolly, James. Labour in Ireland: Labour in Irish History: the Re-conquest of Ireland. Dublin: Irish Workers' Cooperative Society, 1915.

Negroes will not break out of the barriers of the ghetto unless whites transcend the barriers of their own minds, for the ghetto in which the white lives imprisoned. The poetic irony of American race relations is that the rejected Negro must somehow also find the strength to free the privileged white.

Kenneth B. Clark

Dark Ghetto

More information about this quote

Topic

Race relations

Author

Kenneth B. Clark

Source

Dark Ghetto

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Clark, Kenneth B. Dark Ghetto: Dilemmas of Social Power. Harper and Row, 1965, ch. 9.

There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop!

Mario Savio

More information about this quote

Topic

Rebellion Protest The man

Speaker

Mario Savio

Source

Operation of the Machine (Speech)

Medium

Speech

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Savio, Mario. "Operation of the Machine." 2 Dec. 1964, Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA. Address.

Out of the experience of an extraordinary human disaster that lasted too long, must be born a society of which all humanity will be proud...Never, never, and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.

Nelson Mandela

More information about this quote

Topic

Apartheid

Speaker

Nelson Mandela

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1994 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Mandela, Nelson. "Inaugural Address." 10 May 1994, Union Buildings, Pretoria, South Africa, Africa.

All of us in this country give lip service to the ideals set forth in the Bill of Rights and emphasized by every additional amendment, and yet when war is stirring in the world, many of us are ready to curtail our civil liberties. We do not stop to think that curtailing these liberties may in the end bring us a greater danger than the danger we are trying to avert.

Eleanor Roosevelt

More information about this quote

Topic

Civil liberties

Author

Eleanor Roosevelt

Language

English

Time

1940 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Roosevelt, Eleanor. "Intolerance." Cosmopolitan, Feb. 1940.

People are more than the worst thing they have ever done in their lives.

Helen Prejean

Quoted in The New York Times Magazine

Describing her opposition to the death penalty.

More information about this quote

Topic

Capital punishment Second chances

Speaker

Helen Prejean

Source

The New York Times Magazine

Language

English

Time

1993 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Prejean, Helen. Quoted in "Sister Sympathy." Written by Sue Helpren. The New York Times Magazine, 9 May 1993.

I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.

Grover Norquist

More information about this quote

Topic

Limited government

Speaker

Grover Norquist

Language

English

Time

2001 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Norquist, Grover. Interviewed by Mara Liasson. NPR's Morning Edition. 25 May 2001.

My alma mater was books.

Malcolm X

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Buy The Autobiography of Malcolm X at Amazon Buy The Autobiography of Malcolm X at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Books Education

Author

Malcolm X

Source

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1965 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Malcolm X. The Autobiography of Malcolm X: As Told to Alex Haley. Grove Press, 1965.

I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.

Malcolm X

The Ballot or the Bullet

More information about this quote

Topic

American Dream

Speaker

Malcolm X

Source

The Ballot or the Bullet

Medium

Speech

Genre

Political speech

Language

English

Time

1964 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Malcolm X. "The Ballot or the Bullet." 3 Apr. 1964, Cory Methodist Church, Cleveland, OH, USA.

Current Citation

Malcolm X. "The Ballot or the Bullet." Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches and Statements, edited by George Breitman. Grove Press, 1994.

Join the union, girls, and together say, "Equal Pay for Equal Work!"

Susan B. Anthony

More information about this quote

Topic

Equal pay Women's equality Women's rights

Author

Susan B. Anthony

Source

The Revolution

Medium

Newspaper

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1869 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Anthony, Susan B. The Revolution. 8 Oct. 1969.