Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony.
—Noam Chomsky (b.1928) American Linguist, Social Critic
Thus if the First Amendment means anything in this field, it must allow protests even against the moral code that the standard of the day sets for the community. In other words, literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.
—William O. Douglas (1898–1980) American Judge
Agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent amongst them. That is the reason why agitators are so absolutely necessary. Without them, in our incomplete state, there would be no advance towards civilization.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
I pondered all these things, and how men fight and lose the battle, and the thing that they fought for comes about in spite of their defeat, and when it comes turns out not to be what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name.
—William Morris (1834–96) British Designer, Craftsman, Poet, Writer
Unfortunately, I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.
—Marilyn Monroe (1926–62) American Actor, Model, Singer
In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law … That would lead to anarchy. An individual who breaks a law that his conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
We all have private ails. The troublemakers are they who need public cures for their private ails.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I
—Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) American Sportsperson
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.
—Edward R. Murrow (1908–65) American Broadcast Journalist
We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers.
—Emmeline Pankhurst (1858–1928) British Suffragette Leader
We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Think for yourself, question authority.
—Timothy Leary (1920–96) American Psychologist, Author
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were, for the moment, unpopular.
—Edward R. Murrow (1908–65) American Broadcast Journalist
If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it.
—Art Buchwald (1925–2007) American Humorist, Satirist, Columnist
We must develop huge demonstrations, because the world is used to big dramatic affairs. They think in terms of hundreds of thousands and millions and billions… Billions of dollars are appropriated at the twinkling of an eye. Nothing little counts.
—A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) American Labor Leader, Activist
The greatest right in the world is the right to be wrong. If the Government or majorities think an individual is right, no one will interfere with him; but when agitators talk against the things considered holy, or when radicals criticise, or satirize the political gods, or question the justice of our laws and institutions, or pacifists talk against war, how the old inquisition awakens, and ostracism, the excommunication of the church, the prison, the wheel, the torture-chamber, the mob, are called to suppress the free expression of thought.
—Harry Weinberger (1888–1944) American Lawyer
The nail that stands out will be hammered down.
—Japanese Proverb
To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
Prostitution and robbery are two living protests, respectively female and male, made by the natural state against the social state.
—Honore de Balzac (1799–1850) French Novelist
The burning of rebellious thoughts in the little breast, of internal hatred and opposition, could not long go on without slight whiffs of external smoke, such as mark the course of subterranean fire.
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–96) American Abolitionist, Author
Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible political effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
Years ago I recognized my kinship with all living things, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on the earth. I said then and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
—Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) American Labor Leader, Socialist
There is all the difference in the world between the criminal’s avoiding the public eye and the civil disobedience’s taking the law into his own hands in open defiance. This distinction between an open violation of the law, performed in public, and a clandestine one is so glaringly obvious that it can be neglected only by prejudice or ill will.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds…
—Samuel Adams (1722–1803) American Founding Father
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
—Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) Romanian-American Writer, Professor, Activist
Though dissenters seem to question everything in sight, they are actually bundles of dusty answers and never conceived a new question. What offends us most in the literature of dissent is the lack of hesitation and wonder.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
Leave a Reply