Van Jones Quotes

The fight for democracy relies on community support.

Ordinary people can bring about change.

A lot of people felt defeated and hopeless by Trump's election. But I feel his election should energize people to resist apathy, ignorance, sexism, xenophobia, and racism.

I continue to be moved by the knowledge that a group of organized people can effectively pressure government if they come up with data instead of rhetoric.

People were asleep, but I think they're waking up now. Trump has given everybody a good kick, and people are waking up and realizing they've got to get involved.

Our Revolution has been the keeper of the flame doing the vital work of building a grassroots movement that leverages the people's agenda.

To some degree it matters who's in office, but it matters more how much pressure they're under from the public.

I just want to use my voice and my platform to help people. Whether it be political or therapeutic.

The open and generous nature of the American people has the capacity to astonish and push boundaries. We crowdfund, sign petitions, dump buckets of ice on ourselves, and embrace new ways of relating to our environment.

We want to use our site to galvanize people to give but also to take important steps toward real change.

I really feel like people who want to change things need to go out and change it themselves and not look to politicians to do that.

It's not enough to be anti-Trump.

People may recognize me as some sort of superhero, but it's different. Spider-Man and all these other superheroes, they get superpowers and do what they want to save the city. If we need to save Hong Kong, we can't rely on superpowers, we can just rely on the people.

I still believe in the power of government to make lives better, and I believe that if someone is willing to take a stand, other people will follow.

Blue staters tend to send liberal politicians to office, who then vote for bigger federal spending - even though a greater share of the money goes to the red states.

When I think of an activist, I think of a community organizer who is working every day and directly with community members and making it a job to take care of and speak up for a community in some way.

I thought my parents were always having card parties - and they were - but they were actually also having meetings to organize people. My older sister would be part of youth organizing, and she'd have dance parties. People would be dancing and talking about how to improve their neighborhood.

One of the major differences I see in the political climate today is that there is less collective support for coming to critical consciousness – in communities, in institutions, among friends.

Be an active participant in your community and country. Every small gesture makes up the big gestures. Resist, rinse, repeat.

The challenge is to become part of the struggle, to make a positive difference.

Personally, I am uneasy about the notion of "a politically engaged university," for reasons I wrote about over 30 years ago, at the height of protest and resistance (reprinted in For Reasons of State).

We have to end the capitalist system. We have to make love our value. You are rich when you love and you are rich when you are giving away your time and what you have to help other people.

Now people are really inspired to do a lot, and the fire got lit under our asses to be more politically aware and be more politically involved in our community and pay more attention to what's going on.

I hope people become inspired to become active in their community. That's the important thing.

We want to make nation-building a people's movement.