James Callaghan Quotes

Civil disobedience has an honourable history, and when the urgency and moral clarity cross a certain threshold, then I think that civil disobedience is quite understandable, and it has a role to play.

Nonviolent action does not have to get others to be nice. It can in effect force them to consult their consciences.

Non-co-operation means nothing less than training in self-sacrifice.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

My first civil disobedience arrest for social justice was in 1986 for protesting the SDI.

Nonviolent tactics can move into action on our behalf men not naturally inclined to act for us.

People have a right to violence, to rebel, to fight back.

All great rebellions are born of private acts of civil disobedience that inspire rebel bands to plot together.

If America don't come around, we're gonna' burn it down.

How many of you are willing to go to jail for freedom?

History dictates that unresponsive governments force ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Non-violence implies voluntary submission to the penalty for non-cooperation with evil.

I can raise more hell in jail than out.

The function of a progressive is to keep on protesting until things get so bad that a reactionary demands reform.

These are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all protest

If... the machine of government... is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law

Revolutions are not push button affairs; rather, they evolve only if there exists a reservoir of hope and grievance that can be galvanized into popular action.

Somehow, the guys in power have to be reached by counter-power, or through a change in their hearts and minds, or change will not come.

If an injustice requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the government machine.

The absolute key issue is: how do you create enough political pressure? It's up to us to create that political will and there are tried and tested techniques for doing that. So we're talking about the need for civil disobedience that escalates into a rebellion and uprising.

Change comes when people are willing to commit acts of peaceful civil disobedience.

If you want to challenge the system, don't go to bed with it.

A little rebellion is a good thing.

Today, whether it is a student who holds a sit-in to get the army recruiters off his campus, or the mother of a dead soldier who refuses to leave the front gate of the president's ranch, we continue to be saved by brave people who risk ridicule and rejection but end up turning huge tides of public opinion in the direction of righteousness. We owe them enormous debts of gratitude. It is not easy to stand up for what is right, especially when everyone else is afraid to leave the comfortable path of conformity.

Sit up, join up, get on line, get in touch, find out who's raising hell and join them. No use waiting on a bunch of wussy politicians.