Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image.
Imagination rules the world.
Somewhere during the 'Next to Normal' Broadway run, I found myself learning more about myself onstage than in real life, and I truly realized the beautiful, tremendous, extraordinary gift that is performing.
In the case of Papa Pope, certainly he's making his daughter's world and the world of the republic a much better place.
Art is not a mirror to reflect the world, but a hammer with which to shape it
… revolution is in vain unless inspired by its ultimate ideal
Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.
Pain is the fuel of passion - it energizes us with an intensity to change that we don't normally possess.
Art has to change things, and if it was immediately acceptable it would not be doing the job.
Beliefs have the power to create and the power to destroy. Human beings have the awesome ability to take any experience of their lives and create a meaning that disempowers them or one that can literally save their lives.
Small acts by millions of people - imagine the impact of that. If someone changes one thing, they're likely to change two things, and then three things. Then they're likely to demand that from their leadership.
On the contrary a film can promote the idea of change without any political message whatsoever but in its form and language can tell people that they can change their lives and contribute to progressive changes in the world.
The mind has exactly the same power as the hands; not merely to grasp the world, but to change it.
Through Love all that is bitter will be sweet, Through Love all that is copper will be gold, Through Love all dregs will become wine, through Love all pain will turn to medicine.
A great novel is a kind of conversion experience. We come away from it changed.
I saw as a teacher how, if you take that spark of learning that those children have, and you ignite it, you can take a child from any background to a lifetime of creativity and accomplishment.
Why do people compose music? Why do people listen to music? When we go into a concert, we go into a place where we want to experience a sort of ecstasy, to come out of ourselves.
Hearing the blues changed my life.
I think music has the power to transform people, and in doing so, it has the power to transform situations - some large and some small.
Those who have wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs; but always by exciting the multitude. The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only secondary results, the second is the resort of genius and transforms the universe.
… utopianism is probably a necessary social device for generating the superhuman efforts without which no major revolution is achieved.
Hate and anger and disappointment and rage can be channeled in music into the most positive place.
A shocking event plus utopian imagination plus movement muscle, that's how we get a real leap.
The Bible is no ordinary book. The words are like medicine to your soul, and it has the power to change your life!
