Petra Kelly Quotes

A lot of my work concerns a crisis of agency - what can we do?

There's a lot of activism that doesn't deal with empowerment, and you have to empower yourself in order to be relevant to any type of struggle.

You know, there's a lot of activism that doesn't deal with empowerment, and you have to empower yourself in order to be relevant to any type of struggle.

Men must make their history themselves through their own actions

We anarchists do not want to emancipate the people; we want the people to emancipate themselves.

The history of political movements in the African diaspora is that the solution to the problem is never in the hands of people who are advancing the movement. I try and operate on my own terms.

The major job was getting people to understand that they had something within their power that they could use, and it could only be used if they understood what was happening and how group action could counter violence.

History shows that it does not matter who is in power or what revolutionary forces take over the government, those who have not learned to do for themselves and have to depend solely on others never obtain any more rights or privileges in the end than they had in the beginning.

We just have to convince other people that they have power. This is what they can do by participating to make change, not only in their community, but many times changing in their own lives. Once they participate, they get their sense of power.

No one can give us power. If we aren’t part of the process of taking it, we won’t be strong enough to use it.

I want people to see their own power.

With the knowledge of her aloneness came a rush of self-declaration: “I will not be nothing.”

The last great struggle for our rights; the battle for our own civilization, is entirely with ourselves, and the problem is to be solved by us.

The best way to boycott is to build your own

I hear them saying, "You'll never change things, and no matter what you do it's still the same thing." But it's not the world that I am changing. I do this so this world will know that it will not change me.

My top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves.

I was not rescued by a prince; I was the administrator of my own rescue.

So long as we need to control other people, however benign our motives, we are captive to that need. In giving them freedom, we free ourselves.

The women's movement is a non-hierarchical one. It does things collectively and experimentally.

If your purpose is to liberate yourself and others into love and freedom, then you should do whatever magnifies the love and freedom in your life and in the lives of whom your actions affect.

We should listen first and foremost to our own experience We should stop looking for saviors.Society has not existed for thousands of years because it had a succession of saviors. It's existed because it has institutions and processes through which people can realize their own goals.

I refuse to be a doormat to any man. I will never allow anyone to push me around. I am my own mistress.

Salvation for a race, nation or class must come from within. Freedom is never granted; it is won. Justice is never given; it is exacted.

Nobody gives you power. Real power is something you take.

Too long have the workers of the world waited for some Moses to lead them out of bondage... I would not lead you out if I could; for if you could be led out, you could be led back again. I would have you make up your minds there is nothing that you cannot do for yourselves.