Ismail Kadare Quotes

A revolution has taken place within the government but it has not yet penetrated civil society.

Modifying the core institutions of the society is no small challenge.

Neither one of us believe that you can fix the culture from within by just throwing money and people at the system. There has to be a systemic change within the system.

Waste no time with revolutions that do not remove the causes of your complaints but simply change the faces of those in charge.

It's hard to make something as large as a government change. It's a little bit like building the transcontinental railroad.

If you want to change the culture, you will have to start by changing the organization.

There is no fundamental social change by being simply of individual and interpersonal actions. You have to have organizations and institutions that make a fundamental difference.

We cannot 'fix' the police without a revolution of values and radical change to the basic structure of our society.

Old, deeply engrained systems take time to change, but we can't leave it to time.

If we genuinely believe in a bigger future for our country, we have to redistribute both wealth and power - so people can take back control for good, not just for one vote.

A social movement that only moves people is merely a revolt. A movement that changes both people and institutions is a revolution.

If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed

You cannot get a new economy without a new society.

For we have built into all of us, old blueprints of expectation and response, old structures of oppression and these must be altered at the same time that we alter the living condition which are the result of those structures. For the master's tool will never dismantle the master's house.

Unlike mainstream civil rights groups, which merely sought integration of blacks into the existing order, SNCC sought structural changes in American society itself.

I think it's a sign that the establishment is going to have to change. For too long they never thought about the average person, because the average person is not organized.

We must change the decisions we are making by changing the people who are making them.

Even if it remained for 10 more years, it is not the commission that will solve the justice situation, it is us, the Guatemalans, who must see if we truly want to fix our institutions, strengthen them and move forward.

The first step in community organization is community disorganization. The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization. Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are to be displace by new patterns.... All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new.

In God’s economy, vision should move from the fringes to the middle.

Human interaction is the key force in overcoming resistance and speeding change.

I think young people are recognizing the power of institutions, and we have to really dismantle a lot of the stigma and shame, culturally, but we also have to change things in terms of how government and institutions deal with this.

If things do not change, there will be nothing left to change. Either power must pass to the people or everything will perish.

Because 9/11 is an isolated incident. Things that are isolated issues as opposed to things that fundamentally change the United Sates of America and shift power from the people to the government. That is a huge shift. You have to take a long-term look at something that fundamentally changes the power structure of America.

To speak of certain government and establishment institutions as 'the system' is to speak correctly . . . They are sustained by structural relationships even when they have lost all other meaning and purpose. People arrive at a factory and perform a totally meaningless task from eight to five without question because the structure demands it be that way. There's no villian, no 'mean guy' who wants them to live meaningless lives, it's just that the structure, the system demands it and no one is willing to take on the formidable task of changing the structure just because it is meaningless.