Abbie Hoffman
Abbott Howard "Abbie" Hoffman was a social and political activist in the United States who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies"). Later he became a fugitive from the law, who lived under an alias following a conviction for dealing cocaine.
Hoffman was arrested and tried for conspiracy and inciting to riot as a result of his role in protests that led to violent confrontations with police during the 1968 Democratic National Convention, along with Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner and Bobby Seale. The group was known collectively as the "Chicago Eight"; when Seale's prosecution was separated from the others, they became known as the Chicago Seven.
Hoffman came to prominence in the 1960s, and continued practicing his activism in the 1970s, and has remained a symbol of the youth rebellion and radical activism of that era. In his 1980 autobiography, Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture, he described himself as an anarchist.
“Hep is a very dangerous disease that can cause a number of permanent conditions, including death, which is extremely permanent.”
“To steal from a brother or sister is evil. To not steal from the institutions that are the pillars of the Pig Empire is equally immoral.”
“Usually when you ask somebody in college why they are there, they'll tell you it's to get an education. The truth of it is, they are there to get the degree so that they can get ahead in the rat race. Too many college radicals are two-timing punks. The only reason you should be in college is to destroy it.”
“The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.”
“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
“The only way to support a revolution is to make your own.”
“There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power structure as a nobody, giving it your all, and winning!”
“You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.”
“Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit.”
“Above all, what you have as young people that's vitally needed to make social change, is impatience. You want it to happen now. There have to be enough people that say, "We want it now, in our lifetime. " We want to see apartheid in South Africa come down right now. We want to see the war in Central America stop right now. We want the CIA off our campus right now. We want an end to sexual harassment in our communities right now. Be adventurists in the sense of being bold and daring. Be opportunists and seize this opportunity, this moment in history, to go out and save our country. It's your turn now.”
“Free speech is the right to shout 'theater' in a crowded fire.”
“Smoking dope and hanging up Che's picture is no more acommitment than drinking milk and collecting postage stamps.”
“In this state, dig it, you get twenty years for sale of dope to a minor. You only get five to ten for manslaughter. So like, the thing is, if you're selling to a kid and cops come, shoot the kid real quick!”
“I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.”