Malcolm X Quotes

The last I checked, this is an election, and in an election we play politics.

When you get ready to vote, make sure you know what you are doing.

I think you have to ask yourself does voting work on the level that you are trying to effectuate change; that is the conversation you must have.

A voter without a ballot is like a soldier without a bullet.

I am a person who has never used violence himself. My present opinion is that people who have obtained the ballot should use it and solve their problems in that way. In the case of peoples who have not obtained the ballot, and who cannot control their states, I again find in my own mind a division of opinion, which is not logical, but purely a rough practical judgment. My own forefathers got their political freedom by violence; that is to say, they overthrew the British crown and made themselves a free Republic. Also by violence they put an end to the enslavement of the black race on this continent.

Voting is like alchemy - taking an abstract value and breathing life into it.

Get out there and vote like your lives depend on it.

The future is best decided by ballots, not bullets.

I ran because I became convinced after King was shot and killed, and Martin Luther King was one of the great heroes of my life, that politics is not perfect but it's the best available nonviolent means of changing how we live. If we don't like how we live, we can participate in the perfect most revolutionary act in a democracy, it's called voting.

Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. And then he wins the world peace prize and becomes president of South Africa. That's how change happens. It's very important not to differentiate protest from the democratic process.

I can make them voting machines sing Home Sweet Home.

I love voting day. I love the sight of my fellow citizens lining up to make their voices heard.

It's not the voting that's democracy, it's the counting.

You're not going to get a chance to vote for me on the ballot, but you can actually vote for what I believe in.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

People are free to campaign and they will be free to vote. There won't be any soldiers, you know, at the queues. Anyone who has the right to vote is free to go and cast his vote anywhere in his own area, in his own constituency.

By voting, we add our voice to the chorus that forms opinions and the basis for actions.

You've got to vote for someone. It's a shame, but it's got to be done.

Politics is not perfect but it's the best available nonviolent means of changing how we live.

I have always believed that on important issues, the leaders must lead. Where the leaders fail to lead, and people are really concerned about it, the people will take the lead and make the leaders follow.

I believe that Gandhi was correct. Non-violent civil disobedience is the only way to bring about change that allows people to enjoy the change and not get killed in the process.

I believe in the critical importance of participating in the political system - from voting to standing for election. It's both rewarding and necessary that men and women of good will and clear thinking engage in honest, open debate.

The poll that matters is the one that happens on Election Day.

People don’t have to run to the polls. They just have to get there and vote for me.

The first step toward liberation is to use the power in hand ... and the power in hand is the vote.