quotations: commitment, power and acting for social justice
Bob Moses, SNCC leader, 1965 (commenting on empowerment and who made up the Civil Rights Movement): I want to tell you about Mrs. Hazel Palmer, who is a lady who works with the Freedom Democratic Party in Mississippi. She was working for ten, fifteen dollars a week as a maid most of her life. She stopped and changed last summer. And if you want to write her, and I suggest you do--a lot of you--drop her a line...Ask her, "What did you use to do? What do you do now? How come you changed? What gave you the courage to do that? What makes you think that instead of being a cook in somebody's kitchen you could help run a political party? Where did you go to learn how to do that? Did you go to school?" (quoted in "I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle," Charles Payne, p 317).
Andrzej Zagozda, jailed activist in Poland's Solidarity movement, writing from Białołęka Prison, 1982: You know how keen is the feeling of desolation. You feel that you are helpless in the face of...this military machine which was set in motion on a December's night. But you know as you stand alone, bound in handcuffs and with tear-gas in your eyes...thanks to your favourite poet, you that 'the avalance changes course according to the stones over which it passes.' And you want to be the stone that will change the course of events (quoted in "The Heart of Europe," Norman Davies, p. 361).
Mohandas Gandhi: Be the change you want to see.
Justice Louis Brandeis: Many of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done (quoted in Loeb 98).
Paul Rogat Loeb: Our personal lives are to a great extent shaped by decidedly impersonal forces. And we have far more power to influence those forces than we know. By retreating, we don’t escape from the world so much as submit to it. We conspire in our own defeat (91).
Julia Butterfly Hill: The question is not 'can you make a difference?' You already do make a difference. It's just a matter of what kind of difference you want to make, during your life on this planet.
Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC: Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.
Edmund Burke: Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Nelson Mandela: I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter: I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.
Howard Zinn, Historian: All those histories of this country centered on the Founding Fathers and the Presidents weigh oppressively on the capacity of the ordinary citizen to act. They suggest that in times of crisis we must look to someone to save us...The idea of saviors has been built into the entire culture, beyond politics. We have learned to look to stars, leaders, experts in every field, thus surrendering our own strength, demeaning our own ability, obliterating our own selves" (quoted in "I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle," Charles Payne, p 440).
Roger Grande: Students everywhere are involved in making a difference in their communities.
Marian Wright Edelman: We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
Rabbi Tarfon: Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Paolo Freire: Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.
Frederick Douglass: If there is not struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Marianne Williamson: If you get involved in trying to heal the world, you’re not guaranteed specific results as you define them. You’re not promised that because you’re doing this, a particular organization will work or a particular cause prevail. But you gain the satisfaction of living your life for a higher purpose (Loeb p. 113).
Rashida Bee, recipient, 2004 Goldman Environmental Prize: We are not expendable. We are not flowers offered at the altar of profit and power. We are dancing flames committed to conquering darkness and to challenging those who threaten the planet and magic and mystery of life.
Gene Sharp: Some people naively think that if they assert their goal strongly and firmly enough, long enough it will somehow come to pass. Others assume that if they remain true to their principles and ideal, and witness to them in the face of adversity then they are doing all they can to achieve them. Assertion of desirable coals and remaining loyal to ideals are admirable, but are in themselves grossly inadequate to change the statues quo and bring into being designated goals. (from: The importance of strategic planning in nonviolent struggle, www.nonviolence.org)
Reinhold Niebuhr:
Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
Lao Tzu: The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
Andre Gide (Winner of 1947 Nobel Prize for Literature): To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom.
Flacks, Richard: In one sense, history making is inherently carried on in and through everyday life. To pursue one’s personal livelihood is to simultaneously participate in production of goods and services that enable society as a whole to exist and function.…Those at the top exercise their historical power as a routine feature of their daily lives. Their mundane acts—conversing, telephoning, writing on a pad—are behaviorally identical to the routines of any white-collar worker, yet are freighted with historical meaning….The “power elite” is in the unique position of being able to influence history while simultaneously maintaining and enhancing their own personal lives. For the rest of us, historical intervention is experienced as entailing some degree of self-sacrifice….The powerless mass, by definition, depends on elites in authority to provide the livelihoods and frameworks that make daily life possible, and this dependence is the source of elite power. But those same elites depend on the cooperation of the mass to implement their projects and plans; to the degree that such cooperation is required, then to that same degree there is a potential source of popular power. (from: Making History: The American Left and the American Mind, 1988, pp. 3, 5-6)
Eduardo Galeano: When it is genuine, when it is born of the need to speak, no one can stop the human voice. When denied a mouth, it speaks with the hands or the eyes, or the pores, or anything at all. Because every single one of us has something to say to the others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven by others. (“Celebration of the human voice” quoted in Paul Farmer, Pathologies of Power).
Andrzej Zagozda, jailed activist in Poland's Solidarity movement, writing from Białołęka Prison, 1982: You know how keen is the feeling of desolation. You feel that you are helpless in the face of...this military machine which was set in motion on a December's night. But you know as you stand alone, bound in handcuffs and with tear-gas in your eyes...thanks to your favourite poet, you that 'the avalance changes course according to the stones over which it passes.' And you want to be the stone that will change the course of events (quoted in "The Heart of Europe," Norman Davies, p. 361).
Mohandas Gandhi: Be the change you want to see.
Justice Louis Brandeis: Many of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done (quoted in Loeb 98).
Paul Rogat Loeb: Our personal lives are to a great extent shaped by decidedly impersonal forces. And we have far more power to influence those forces than we know. By retreating, we don’t escape from the world so much as submit to it. We conspire in our own defeat (91).
Julia Butterfly Hill: The question is not 'can you make a difference?' You already do make a difference. It's just a matter of what kind of difference you want to make, during your life on this planet.
Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC: Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander.
Edmund Burke: Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.
Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small, group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.
Nelson Mandela: I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter: I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can only rest for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not ended.
Howard Zinn, Historian: All those histories of this country centered on the Founding Fathers and the Presidents weigh oppressively on the capacity of the ordinary citizen to act. They suggest that in times of crisis we must look to someone to save us...The idea of saviors has been built into the entire culture, beyond politics. We have learned to look to stars, leaders, experts in every field, thus surrendering our own strength, demeaning our own ability, obliterating our own selves" (quoted in "I've Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle," Charles Payne, p 440).
Roger Grande: Students everywhere are involved in making a difference in their communities.
Marian Wright Edelman: We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.
Rabbi Tarfon: Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.
Paolo Freire: Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.
Frederick Douglass: If there is not struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.
Marianne Williamson: If you get involved in trying to heal the world, you’re not guaranteed specific results as you define them. You’re not promised that because you’re doing this, a particular organization will work or a particular cause prevail. But you gain the satisfaction of living your life for a higher purpose (Loeb p. 113).
Rashida Bee, recipient, 2004 Goldman Environmental Prize: We are not expendable. We are not flowers offered at the altar of profit and power. We are dancing flames committed to conquering darkness and to challenging those who threaten the planet and magic and mystery of life.
Gene Sharp: Some people naively think that if they assert their goal strongly and firmly enough, long enough it will somehow come to pass. Others assume that if they remain true to their principles and ideal, and witness to them in the face of adversity then they are doing all they can to achieve them. Assertion of desirable coals and remaining loyal to ideals are admirable, but are in themselves grossly inadequate to change the statues quo and bring into being designated goals. (from: The importance of strategic planning in nonviolent struggle, www.nonviolence.org)
Reinhold Niebuhr:
Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime
Therefore, we are saved by hope.
Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
Therefore, we are saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone.
Therefore, we are saved by love.
No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own;
Therefore, we are saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
Lao Tzu: The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
Andre Gide (Winner of 1947 Nobel Prize for Literature): To know how to free oneself is nothing; the arduous thing is to know what to do with one's freedom.
Flacks, Richard: In one sense, history making is inherently carried on in and through everyday life. To pursue one’s personal livelihood is to simultaneously participate in production of goods and services that enable society as a whole to exist and function.…Those at the top exercise their historical power as a routine feature of their daily lives. Their mundane acts—conversing, telephoning, writing on a pad—are behaviorally identical to the routines of any white-collar worker, yet are freighted with historical meaning….The “power elite” is in the unique position of being able to influence history while simultaneously maintaining and enhancing their own personal lives. For the rest of us, historical intervention is experienced as entailing some degree of self-sacrifice….The powerless mass, by definition, depends on elites in authority to provide the livelihoods and frameworks that make daily life possible, and this dependence is the source of elite power. But those same elites depend on the cooperation of the mass to implement their projects and plans; to the degree that such cooperation is required, then to that same degree there is a potential source of popular power. (from: Making History: The American Left and the American Mind, 1988, pp. 3, 5-6)
Eduardo Galeano: When it is genuine, when it is born of the need to speak, no one can stop the human voice. When denied a mouth, it speaks with the hands or the eyes, or the pores, or anything at all. Because every single one of us has something to say to the others, something that deserves to be celebrated or forgiven by others. (“Celebration of the human voice” quoted in Paul Farmer, Pathologies of Power).