Crystal Eastman Quotes

I'm not sure I'm trying to communicate a message. I'm just trying to be part of the movement away from the unacceptable present.

Solidarity is an attitude of resistance, I suppose, or it should be.

Acceptance does not mean that you placidly acquiesce to the myriad injustices that are all around you. In fact, that you are incensed about these injustices is the very reason you need to try your level best to 'right' these 'wrongs.'

You can't expect to go about change - especially change of this nature, when you talk about racial equality and justice - you can't expect to go about or engage in that without resistance, and so you're going to have some people who aren't on board.

Whether or not you call it Black Lives Matter, whether or not you put a hashtag in front of it, whether or not you call it the Movement for Black Lives, all of that is irrelevant. Because there was resistance before Black Lives Matter, and there will be resistance after Black Lives Matter.

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

Nonviolence is the rock on which the whole structure of non-co-operation is built.

If you want to deserve Hell, you need only stay in bed. The world is iniquity; if you accept it, you are an accomplice, if you change it you are an executioner.

Non-violence has suffered its biggest defeat in the hands of people who most want to talk about it.

I don’t believe in eye-for-an-eye. The most incredible, sustainable, beautiful movements have been non-violent movements of civil disobedience.

AIM in essence is a movement rather than just an organization. It is a manifestation of the desperation of our people.

It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer Neither is resignation Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment.

Standing Rock is a moment in history. We really have to grab it and go with it.

I'm starting to realize there's no stopping us now. An idea, a feeling, a movement can't just be squashed. It's impossible now.

Freedom only comes through persistent revolt, through persistent agitation, through persistently rising up against the system of evil.

My faith in non-co-operation is as bright as ever.

It's a misconception to believe that the resistance ended with the civil rights movement.

Individual struggles merge into larger social movements.

I have been practicing, with scientific precision, nonviolence and its possibilities for an unbroken period of over fifty years.

Every successful social movement in this country's history has used disruption as a strategy to fight for social change. Whether it was the Boston Tea Party to the sit-ins at lunch counters throughout the South, no change has been won without disruptive action.

Injustice has exhausted people but also pushed them to organize and fight back in very sophisticated ways.

I'm an activist.

'Rise Up' is very necessary. Point blank.

Gandhi protested against restrictive policies. So did 'Guru.'

We won't stop protesting. It's the engine that moves society forward.