Mary Robinson Quotes

Look at what I've done my entire life. I have been working on behalf of civil rights, women's rights, human rights for years and I know how challenging it is to change our political system and I have the highest regard for those who have put themselves on the line.

I just love that Free the Slaves does such a great job of gathering communities, gathering people together, and giving them the information, arming them, educating them. That's how we're going to change the world.

Rights are won only by those who make their voices heard.

There's still injustice happening in my world. I sing my songs at concerts and I'm so grateful that the people are ready to hear them.

Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the struggle for equal rights.

We pave the sunlit path toward justice together, brick by brick. This is my brick.

The movement for equality and justice can only be a success if it has both a mass and militant character; the barriers to be overcome require both.

My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure.

I believe in the rights of every individual and to have the opportunity to help strengthen our members and to give them voice has been a privilege. I really am honored.

We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets.

My kids have lived experiences that could have never been duplicated otherwise. That's one thing about people who get involved in activism, you live so many experiences that otherwise they wouldn't be there. This is why peoples' lives are so enriched.

Don't let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.

There's no question in my mind but that rights are never won unless people are willing to fight for them.

I'm going to fight for human rights, whether I do it silently behind the scenes or vocally so that I get locked up. I can't just sit back; it's not in my nature. I can't sit back and blindly ignore it, and I won't.

The people will learn to feel the dignity of man. They will not merely demand their rights, which have been trampled in the dust, but themselves will take them - make them their own.

In less than a century we experienced great movement. The youth movement! The labor movement! The civil rights movement! The peace movement! The solidarity movement! The women's movement! The disability movement! The disarmament movement! The gay rights movement! The environmental movement! Movement! Transformation! Is there any reason to believe we are done?

Number one comes freedom first for my people and equality. And this is what I plan to do after I'm through fighting - working with nothing but the people, the little people in the alleys: the downtrodden people, going out and helping them with my image.

When a woman has the opportunity to speak truth to power, it's important that she does, even if it's just trying to get a crosswalk in her neighborhood. That's how social change happens!

This is Not Another Revolution. This is a Civil Rights Movement

The great thing about social movements is everybody gets to be a part of them.

An organization which claims to be working for the needs of a community - as SNCC does - must work to provide that community with a position of strength from which to make its voice heard. This is the significance of black power beyond the slogan.

You can't fight for your rights if you don't know what they are.

As the anti-slavery community, we must together ensure that this attention is transferred into concrete action and results.

What makes community organizing especially attractive is the faith it places in the ability of the poor to make decisions for themselves.

Create power for the powerless.