Shane Smith Quotes

I don't know why there's not more activism today. I do think that your generation is twenty times smarter than our generation ever was, but the problem with being smart like you guys is that it can lead you really easily to being cynical, and cynicism is actually a pacifying attitude.

Young people are this country [America], and we need to speak out.

From the streets of Cairo and the Arab Spring, to Occupy Wall Street, from the busy political calendar to the aftermath of the tsunami in Japan, social media was not only sharing the news but driving it.

Dictators aren't stupid, or regimes could be toppled easily by young people mobilizing on Facebook.

I think the Internet and technology in general has changed everything. We can see it overseas even more with the Arab Spring and so forth.

I never want to sound preachy about youth and feminism, but I feel like there aren't enough young people coming out about their concerns and opinions.

Books are for adults; revolution is for the young.

I want our millennials and our young people to do what they started out doing with meet-ups, to talk about what is going on, and spread the education.

Social media now make it easier to organize protest movements, even - or perhaps especially - in authoritarian regimes.

It's always been young people at the forefront of any revolution.

Young people, throughout history, have always been the lifeblood of every movement for civil and human rights.

I always say that the largest party in every country - the largest opposition group in every country - is the youth party.

We're seeing young people find their own voices and find their activism.

Social media and young people, art, music, all communications make this one of the most active times for activism. It will be a time of change.

The good news is I think there are a lot of young people certainly who were involved in my campaigns, and I think continue to be involved in work not just politically, but through nonprofits and other organizations, that can carry this hard work of democracy forward.

I don't demonize the downside. As we've seen in Egypt and Tahrir square and other recent event, the adhesiveness through [technology] kinds of communication is extraordinary. Interesting times we live in.

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 admire young people who are concerned with the affairs of their community and nation perhaps because I also became involved in struggle whist I was still at school.

I'm hopeful that increased awareness of the issues in Africa will bring about a new wave of progress and activism among young people everywhere.

I was inspired by what students have done in some schools organizing walkouts protesting the lack of funding and that sort of thing. There are opportunities for students to engage in those types of protests - taking to the streets - but there is also writing poetry, writing music, beginning to express themselves, holding forums, educating each other, the whole range.

I love seeing young people take a stance and not be afraid to say how they feel, and protest when they feel things are wrong or unjust.

The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.

Young people have been at the forefront of every great social movement in our country's history.

The use of the Internet, the use of Twitter, the way protest movements developed... This is a different world.

If Egypt were going to change, it is going to change through the young people.