Margaret Mead Quotes

People say that the government should be doing this Yeah, but the government is not doing this. So we do.

I'd like to transform the system in very fundamental ways, but you've got to do that in every way that you can. You can't wait for some magic bullet or some magic politician or some magic anything to have that happen. You got to get out there and use your vote.

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.

We need to take responsibility and educate people. That's why black folks don't like me. I always say it's our responsibility to make safe neighborhoods. It's our job to get them cleaned up.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

The electoral system is not where change starts - it usually starts in communities and from the bottom up - but it is where change can be stopped.

Change happens from the bottom up - all of us as individuals deciding that we will and we do have an impact.

It is no longer appropriate for me as an American to sit by and expect my government to get it done.

As Americans, we don't see the role of government as guaranteeing outcomes, but allowing free men and women to flourish based on their own vision, their hard work and their personal responsibility.

The average Nigerian person has come to reconcile himself with the fact that his or her social progress remain essentially in his or her hands in collaboration with other fellow Nigerians and not merely relying on what government alone could provide for him or her.

Primarily, we need to change 100 years of thinking, where we try to extend the promise of American life by moving things to Washington, and let's move it the other way: less of Washington, more from ourselves.

It is not one government or another that can solve all of the problems. It's you.

If you believe in making change from the bottom up, if you believe the measure of change is how many people's lives are better, you know it's hard, and some people think it's boring.

I believe the people of Compton are ready for change. They've spoken. Their voice has clearly been heard that they don't want to go backward. They want to go forward.

We must introduce a new balance in the relationship between the individual and the government--a balance that favors greater individual freedom and self-reliance.

The corporate-powered parties are not gonna do it for us, not the greater or the lesser evil. We have to do it for ourselves. And the minute we stand up and stand together, we are unstoppable.

The efforts of governments alone will never be enough. In the end, the people must choose and the people must help themselves.

I do not want to live under a philanthropy. I do not want to be taken care of by the government.... We do not want a benevolent government. We want a free and a just government.

A movement happens when people are inspired by somebody, but they do it themselves. You don't wait for someone else. You do it yourself.

If governments do not ensure that, the peoples through their own efforts will ensure these changes, what we call communitarian socialism.

People are always saying,'They'll take care of it. The government'll--Don't worry, they'll--' 'They' who? It starts with us. It's us. Or else it'll never be done...

But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags that time cannot decay, I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet: Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

For change to happen in any community, the initiative must come from the individual.

There is no social-change fairy. There is only change made by the hands of individuals.

I decided to become a community organizer ... Change won't come from the top, I would say. Change will come from a mobilized grass roots.