Blanche Wiesen Cook Quotes

A lot of people want to change the world, but only a few people want to change themselves. When it comes to the issue of race in America, we have to do both.

One does not fight to influence change and then leave the change to someone else to bring about.

I'm a man that has a vision as to how this world can be, and I've gathered myself through all the ordeals that I had to make me a well-rounded person and still fight for justice.

It is time for blacks to begin the shift from a wartime to a peacetime identity, from fighting for opportunity to the seizing of it.

I don't think it's necessary to feel guilty. Because I know that I'm still doing the work that is going to help more sisters and brothers to challenge the whole criminal justice system, and I'm trying to use whatever knowledge I was able to acquire to continue to do the work in our communities that will move us forward.

People on a spiritual path - personal growth, spiritual practice, recovery, yoga and so forth - are the last people who should be sitting out the social and political issues of our day. And there’s an important reason for this: People on such journeys are adepts at change. They know that the mechanics of the heart and mind are the fundamental drivers of transformation.

I lost some friends when I made the move, but if that's what matters to them, then they're not really friends at all.

Liberty can change habits.

By declaring yourself a leader, you're taking initiative and moving into a role of influence in a lively and vital network that's changing the world. We're changing the world, first by changing ourselves and then by touching the world as changed beings. We believe the change in us catalyzes change in others. So in changing the world, we're choosing to be the change we wish to see in the world. By taking on this leadership role, you are choosing to be the change too.

And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start to mold a new reality closer to the heart.

Speaking of important things, there are so many battles right now that people are fighting for that it's overwhelming, but I am always in favor of people who crusade for the sake of people's hearts and their well-being. That is what is important.

My job, as an actor, is to entertain people. My contribution to society is to be a respite from everyday life. People go home and watch television or they go to the movies, and they get to escape their reality. But if I can do entertainment that also maybe can educate people, educate myself, move people's hearts and minds, in some way, and bring light to some injustice, that's when entertainment is at its best. And if somebody wants to get more involved in a socially active way, that's when you've done the thing that I've always wanted to be a part of.

The big companies are like steel and activists are like heat. Activists soften the steel, and then I can bend it into pretty grillwork and make reforms.

I'm not sure if my involvement in causes, benefits, marches, and demonstrations has made a huge difference, but I know one thing: that involvement has connected me with the good people: people with the live hearts, the live eyes, the live heads.

Personally, I don't think it's possible to do great things alone or through individual actions. On the contrary, I think it is only possible to know what to do in a specific moment once you have understood the zeitgeist, and it is only possible to move things forward if you have a sense of responsibility. And that is exactly the goal I have set for myself: to try to encourage France and the French people to change and develop further.

We need to advocate for social justice and reform so that all minorities are protected not only under the law but more importantly by our cultural values and ethic. The law cannot change the human heart. Government is limited in its ability to effect culture. This is the role and responsibility of the Church. Only Jesus can move us from hate to love.

The only way to win the war is to move people's hearts and minds.

No reform is possible unless some of the educated and the rich voluntarily accept the status of the poor, travel third, refuse to enjoy the amenities denied to the poor and, instead of taking avoidable hardships, discourtesies and injustice as a matter of course, fight for their removal.

I think the '80s created me, in a way, when I look back on that time, but I don't necessarily think that a lot of my choices, and a lot of things that I did, and a lot of things that happened to me - or I let happen to me - were about that decade.

God did not create the strife between races, nor did He intend for it to be that way. Strife between races and ethnic groups comes from sin-and sin resides in the human heart. The Bible says, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?” (James 4:1). When one group or one race claims it is superior to another, pride has taken control-and pride is a sin.Instead, God wants us to learn to accept each other and love each other-and this becomes possible, as we turn our lives over to Christ and allow Him to change us from within.

If you join a fight for social justice you may win or lose, but just by being part of the struggle, you win, and your life will be better for it.

The liberals have not softened their view of actuality to make themselves live closer to the dream, but instead sharpen their perceptions and fight to make the dream actuality.

A little matter will move a party, but it must be something great that moves a nation.

Decide in your heart of hearts what really excites and challenges you, and start moving your life in that direction

Male initiation does not move toward machoism; on the contrary, it moves toward achieving a cultivated heart before we die.