Cecile Richards Quotes

We're trying to convey how much easier it is than most people think, especially young people, to turn the country around if they focus on the levers, if they focus on Congress, and state legislatures.

As women, we know that we must always find ways to change the process because the present institutions want to hold on to power and keep the status quo.

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

Most governments and people want reform. It’s the prospect of change that makes reform rare.

If you look at all different facets, where does it come from? Education. It comes from empowerment of young people. Because the bureaucracies that are in place now, they're not going to change, they're not going to stop.

I think people look at revolution too much in terms of power. I think revolution has to be seen more anthropologically, in terms of transitions from one mode of life to another.

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.

I always feel we have to work both outside and inside of our existing institutions, so we have to really be careful about who we vote for and examine carefully our institutions and what they're meant to do and how they're being violated. I also think we need movements from below that oppose what Trump administration and administrations like it are doing to ordinary people.

I belive power can be used for good, I don't think every form of power is absolute evil. I wish I would have stepped in, and I really regret it. And that's why I really encourage young people who are organizing to speak up.

Women have gained access to the institutions, but not enough power to overhaul them.

The economy schoolchildren currently expect to live under and serve would not survive a generation of young people trained to think critically.

Young people are tremendously frustrated because they don't see politics as changing anything. They see it as perpetuating a system that frankly doesn't work and no matter who you vote for things don't really change. Social media is where I think a bold message will wake them up. We saw that a little bit in the Occupy movement. Over the next three years, I think young people are going to wake up and be empowered.

I think something very weird's going on now, 'cause the power that is permitted to youth is quite extraordinary. And they are sort of run by that kind of power.

If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system.That's much more powerful than rebelling outside the system.

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.

Maybe we can show government how to operate better as a result of better architecture.

I'm not afraid to shake up the system, and government needs more shaking up than any other system I know.

There has to be a reform within the government that is tangible, that we can actually measure and that we have confidence is going to provide some of the differences that I think are essential to our troops to be able to carry out their mission and to the longer- term interests of our country.

People in Detroit aren't just urban gardening. They're starting a new mode of education. They're trying to give children the education to be "solutionaries" rather than people who are going to get jobs in the system. And that is a huge change, a cultural revolution. The things that are happening in Detroit would amaze you if you're used to only looking at statistics, and only thinking of blacks as sufferers and not as activists.

I think being able to identify with young people and...their capacity to change the world and shake things up. I think that's the greatest strength.

I think that anybody from the 20th century, up to now, has to be aware that if it wasn't for Louis Armstrong, we'd all be wearing powdered wigs. I think that Louis Armstrong loosened the world, helped people to be able to say "Yeah," and to walk with a little dip in their hip. Before Louis Armstrong, the world was definitely square, just like Christopher Columbus thought.

One of the hardest lessons in young Sam's life had been finding out that the people in charge weren't in charge. It had been finding out that governments were not, on the whole, staffed by people who had a grip, and that plans were what people made instead of thinking.

I think that we need to change the culture, not blame the people that are playing the only game that exists.

Violence maims not only the body but also the mind and spirit. As Pierre Bourdieu has argued, it lies "on the side of belief and persuasion." If we are to counter violence by offering young people ways to think differently about their world and the choices before them, they must be empowered to recognize themselves in any analysis of violence, and in doing so to acknowledge that it speaks to their lives meaningfully.

New generations have unprecedented power to make great changes. Take the music business for example. The new generations have toppled the music industry by file sharing, downloading, and Myspace. Rock 'n' roll belongs to the people.