Noam Chomsky Quotes

it is immoral for powerless people to accept this powerlessness. They may not succeed in getting power but they can fight for it, and if enough fight for it, it makes it very difficult for the people with the big sticks.

Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it.

AIM in essence is a movement rather than just an organization. It is a manifestation of the desperation of our people.

True resistance begins with people confronting pain... and wanting to do something to change it.

All over this world people are standing up for freedom.

We need more radicalism among us before we can speak as becomes a suffering, oppressed, and persecuted people.

I'm not sure I'm trying to communicate a message. I'm just trying to be part of the movement away from the unacceptable present.

Solidarity is an attitude of resistance, I suppose, or it should be.

Acceptance does not mean that you placidly acquiesce to the myriad injustices that are all around you. In fact, that you are incensed about these injustices is the very reason you need to try your level best to 'right' these 'wrongs.'

History dictates that unresponsive governments force ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Protest is when I say this does not please me. Resistance is when I ensure what does not please me occurs no more.

Sometimes things need to get really bad before they can ever get better. Really bad can become untenable if enough people get sick of it. That was a big thing about why I ended up taking part in that rally [against police brutality] and ended up voicing my opinion and declaring what side I was standing on.

Social gains are never handed out. They must be seized.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress....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.

Civil disobedience is the only nonviolent escape from the soul-destroying heat of violence.

There's still injustice happening in my world. I sing my songs at concerts and I'm so grateful that the people are ready to hear them.

Idea of holding each other’s hands at the Women’s March—it feels like we are being invited to do that every day. So many of us are feeling attacked, whether it’s a woman’s right to choose or headstones in a Jewish cemetery, immigrants being deported or banned. So many of us feel the need to protect and defend our democracy. And march toward the dream of being “We the people.” So that’s exciting, scary, and frustrating. We’re awake. We are awake more than ever before, and we have to stay awake.

We, the Desaparecidos, are perfectly prepared for people to hate what we're saying or not like what we're saying.

The power of the people is much stronger than the people in power.

If there's a theme in my work, it's that I like to focus on smart people who are facing oppression and who are fighting back against it.

Sometimes you must live in a violent world in order to get greater justice.

Toni Cade Bambara said: “Writing is the way I participate in the struggle.”

Every great movement in the world starts with a tiny group of people who simply refuse to accept a situation.

People resist exploitation. They resist as actively as they can, as passively as they must.

Freedom only comes through persistent revolt, through persistent agitation, through persistently rising up against the system of evil.