45 Activism Quotes To Inspire

In a world brimming with challenges, activism remains a powerful force for change, fueled by the voices and actions of individuals who dare to envision a better tomorrow. Whether you're a seasoned advocate or just beginning your journey, finding inspiration in the powerful words of activists can ignite your passion and perseverance. We've carefully curated a collection of the top 45 activism quotes to invigorate your spirit and bolster your resolve. These quotes, drawn from a diverse range of voices, serve as reminders of the impact we can make through collective effort and unwavering commitment. Let these words be your guide as you navigate the path of activism, and may they amplify your drive to create a positive and lasting impact on the world.

1. “Everybody can be great...because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

2. “At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done.We will be judged by "I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.” - Mother Teresa

3. “I for one believe that if you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them and the basic causes that produce it, they'll create their own program, and when the people create a program, you get action.” - Malcolm X

4. “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

5. “One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us.” - Kurt Vonnegut

6. “You may never know what results come of your actions, but if you do nothing, there will be no results.” - Mahatma Gandhi

7. “If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.” - Albert Einstein

8. “Buddhism holds that everything is in constant flux. Thus the question is whether we are to accept change passively and be swept away by it or whether we are to take the lead and create positive changes on our own initiative. While conservatism and self-protection might be likened to winter, night, and death, the spirit of pioneering and attempting to realize ideals evokes images of spring, morning, and birth.” - Daisaku Ikeda

9. “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” - Elie Wiesel

10. “It's the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there'll be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” - Mahatma Gandhi

11. “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

12. “Thou shalt not stand idly by” - Anonymous

13. “The 1970s-80s social movement called U.S. third world feminism functioned as a central locus of possibility, an insurgent social movement that shattered the construction of any one ideology as the single most correct site where truth can be represented. Indeed, without making this kind of metamove, any 'liberation' or social movement eventually becomes destined to repeat the oppressive authoritarianism from which it is attempting to free itself, and become trapped inside a drive for truth that ends only in producing its own brand of dominations. What U.S. third world feminism thus demanded was a new subjectivity, a political revision that denied any one ideology as the final answer, while instead positing a tactical subjectivity with the capactiy to de- and recenter, given the forms of power to be moved. These dynamics are what were required in the shift from enacting a hegemonic oppositional theory and practice to engaging in the differential form of social movement, as performed by U.S. feminists of color during the post-World War II period of great social transformation. p. 58-59. ” - Chela Sandoval

14. “To sin by silence, when they should protest, makes cowards of men.” - Ella Wheeler Wilcox

15. “The ends you serve that are selfish will take you no further than yourself but the ends you serve that are for all, in common, will take you into eternity.” - Marcus Garvey

16. “To spend one's life being angry, and in the process doing nothing to change it, is to me ridiculous. I could be mad all day long, but if I'm not doing a damn thing, what difference does it make?” - Charles Fuller

17. “A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things.” - Barack Obama

18. “The necessity of reform mustn’t be allowed to become a form of blackmail serving to limit, reduce, or halt the exercise of criticism. Under no circumstances should one pay attention to those who tell one: “Don’t criticize, since you’re not capable of carrying out a reform.” That’s ministerial cabinet talk. Critique doesn’t have to be the premise of a deduction that concludes, “this, then, is what needs to be done.” It should be an instrument for those for who fight, those who resist and refuse what is. Its use should be in processes of conflict and confrontation, essays in refusal. It doesn’t have to lay down the law for the law. It isn’t a stage in a programming. It is a challenge directed to what is.” - Michel Foucault

19. “Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it.” - Howard Zinn

20. “There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power structure as a nobody, giving it your all, and winning!” - Abbie Hoffman

21. “What I used to say to people, when I was much more engagé myself, is that you can't be apolitical. It will come and get you. It's not that you shouldn't be neutral. It's that you won't be able to stay neutral.” - Christopher Hitchens

22. “You speak of doing good to the world. Is the world such a small thing? And who are you, pray, to do good to the world? First realise God, see Him by means of spiritual discipline. If He imparts power you can do good to others; otherwise not.” - Sri Ramakrishna

23. “Protest is when I say I don't like this. Resistance is when I put an end to what I don't like. Protest is when I say I refuse to go along with this anymore. Resistance is when I make sure everybody else stops going along too.” - Ulrike Meinhof

24. “When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: if you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren't pessimistic, you don't understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren't optimistic, you haven't got a pulse.” - Martin Keogh

25. “New and stirring things are belittled because if they are not belittled the humiliating question arises 'Why then are you not taking part in them?” - H.G. Wells

26. “When principles that run against your deepest convictions begin to win the day, then battle is your calling, and peace has become sin; you must, at the price of dearest peace, lay your convictions bare before friend and enemy, with all the fire of your faith.” - Abraham Kuyper

27. “In the past, when gays were very flamboyant as drag queens or as leather queens or whatever, that just amused people. And most of the people that come and watch the gay Halloween parade, where all those excesses are on display, those are straight families, and they think it's funny. But what people don't think is so funny is when two middle-aged lawyers who are married to each other move in next door to you and your wife and they have adopted a Korean girl and they want to send her to school with your children and they want to socialize with you and share a drink over the backyard fence. That creeps people out, especially Christians. So, I don't think gay marriage is a conservative issue. I think it's a radical issue.” - Edmund White

28. “The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you'll get action.” - Malcolm X

29. “If I look at the mass I will never act.” - Mother Teresa

30. “If the apostles reminded even Paul himself to remember the poor (Galatians 2:10), then surely the rest of us need such a reminder.” - Russell D. Moore

31. “You have to do to be.” - Eric Rofes

32. “A critical element in nearly all effective social movements is leadership. For it is through smart, persistent, and authoritative leaders that a movement generates the appropriate concepts and language that captures the frustration, anger, or fear of the group's members and places responsibility where it is warranted.” - David E. Wilkins

33. “Concerning non-violence: it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks.” - Malcolm X

34. “I learned early that crying out in protest could accomplish things. My older brothers and sister had started to school when, sometimes, they would come in and ask for a buttered biscuit or something and my mother, impatiently, would tell them no. But I would cry out and make a fuss until I got what I wanted. I remember well how my mother asked me why I couldn't be a nice boy like Wilfred; but I would think to myself that Wilfred, for being so nice and quiet, often stayed hungry. So early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise.” - Malcolm X

35. “Each of us lives with a sword over his head.There are those who can ignore its shadow and those who cannot. Those who cannot are not necessarily better than those who can. But they are the creators of the special myth of their time, because any myth is the creation of the very few who cannot bear reality.” - Murray Kempton

36. “The tide of history only advances when people make themselves fully visible.” - Anderson Cooper

37. “It is not my place to offer pep talks, aphorisms, or dictums. But if I had to give one piece of practical advice it would be this: Find something that you love that they're fucking with and then fight for it. If everyone did that--imagine the difference. (50)” - david gessner

38. “The enormity of problems like hunger and social injustice can certainly motivate us to act. We can be convinced logically of the need for intervention and change. But it is the story of one individual that ultimately makes the difference—by offeringliving proof.” - John Capecci and Timothy Cage

39. “We've got to make change our national pastime and hold protests more regularly than weekend parties.” - Rivera Sun

40. “Stop listening to the TV tell you about America the beautiful . . . get up and be America the beautiful.” - Rivera Sun

41. “This isn't about keeping mountains looking pretty. Ending mountaintop removal is about keeping humanity alive.” - Rivera Sun

42. “If my activism, however well-motivated, drives out love, then I have misunderstood Jesus’ gospel. I am stuck with law, not the gospel of grace.” - Philip Yancey

43. “What a nation needs more than anything else is not a Christian ruler in the palace but a Christian prophet within earshot.” - Philip Yancey

44. “The world was in terrible shape, and I'm glad we stood up and said what we believed; but a lot of the time we'd say these beautiful things about justice and fairness and equality, but we weren't so nice to each other. We'd be jealous and we'd gossip, and we'd be moody and difficult and rude and inconsiderate. Why do I say 'we'? I mean I would be all that-- and if at the time I ever came near to knowing what I'd become, I'd dodge, I'd duck, I'd go on the offensive: the terrible Wall Street bankers. Lots of them were terrible-- and so were lots of us.” - Dorothy Day

45. “We cannot do everything, but we can all do something.” - Dillon Burroughs