Gil Scott-Heron Quotes

I fought for peace in the fifties.

We can't allow any war for imperialism or greed to be fought in our names. This is what we need to keep fighting for.

If you compromise in any kind of movement or any kind of wave of revolution, if you sort of play the game, things are gonna change far more slowly than you need them to.

Never Tire of Protesting

I don't consider myself part of the Resistance because that's against something, and you have to be for something.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

Guilt for being rich, and guilt thinking that perhaps love and peace isn't enough and you have to go and get shot or something.

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

Take away the violence and who will hear the men of peace?

It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.

In the '60s we fought for peace, when the Vietnam war was on. We were against the cops and against the politicians, and there was a lot of waving banners and all that. And I think in a way, just as they were enjoying that machoism of war, we were enjoying the machismo of being anti-war, you know?

Social change comes through people.

In any social revolution the one thing that keeps it alive is hope.

Once you follow a path of nonviolence and social justice, it won't take you long before you come into conflict with the culture, with the society. You can't know what is at stake or how much it is going to cost you until you get in the game.

… take the Constitution out of cold storage!

I'm proud to be part of the resistance.

Some people see protesting as a bit of a dirty thing, and certainly the idea of getting arrested was not on people's radar.

Resistance is the first step to change.

Truth and nonviolence are perhaps the activest forces you have in the world.

Activism that challenges the status quo, that attacks deeply rooted problems, is not for the faint of heart.

Nonviolence is really tough. You don't practice nonviolence at conferences; you practice it on picket-lines.

One thing that I'd just remind young people of is that when John Lewis, who's a member of Congress today, defied George Wallace and led the march from Selma to Montgomery, he was 23 years old. Martin Luther King was the old man in the bunch, and he was 35, so young people need to know that they've always been an important part of our society, have always been at the forefront of pushing for a more just America, and we can't be successful without the impatience, the vigor that young people bring to the fight for social justice.

It may be necessary to use methods other than constitutional ones.

I'm part of an important movement that needs to happen.

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.