Annie Lennox Quotes

Acting is one thing, but actually trying to change the world and the way people think to make people's lives better? That's the stuff I'm most proud of.

I don't think it's necessary to feel guilty. Because I know that I'm still doing the work that is going to help more sisters and brothers to challenge the whole criminal justice system, and I'm trying to use whatever knowledge I was able to acquire to continue to do the work in our communities that will move us forward.

I wanted to use sports for social change.

People who imagine and implement solutions to challenges in their own lives, in their communities, in our country and in our world have always inspired me.

I am trying to change the world.

A lot of people want to change the world, but only a few people want to change themselves. When it comes to the issue of race in America, we have to do both.

I think my experience at the University of Chicago, working in the civil rights movement, working in the peace movement, working with community organizations, did a lot to influence the politics that I have.

A great many college graduates come here thinking of lawyers as social engineers arguing the great Constitutional issues.

I'm certainly not ready to go changing the world overnight right now. I'm completely uninformed about a lot of our issues, a lot of the nation's issues, not just Indigenous issues.

There are so many people out there working with great grassroots and global and national organizations that are unsung heroes to me.

I've always respected those who tried to change the world for the better, rather than just complain about it.

I think my voice would be great as a protestor but also it would be, and has been, very powerful for charity.

I'd love to change the world, but I don't know what to do

I am inspired by those who dedicate their lives to bringing about positive social change throughout the world.

The goal is to talk about the issues that are happening in the USA with the ultimate goal of making change. Not just some rebellious act that we're trying to have against our country.

People like to say, “Well, you’re a celebrity. You should really pick a cause.” I felt that’s like telling a doctor, “Well, you should focus on one area of the body.” Current issues, global issues, political issues, women’s issues—whatever one you want to talk about. It’s systemic, you know?

The [nonprofit] sector is the natural home of nonmajoritarian impulses, movements and values. It comfortably harbors innovators, maverick movements, groups which feel they must fight for their place in the sun, and critics of both liberal conservative persuasion.

People on a spiritual path - personal growth, spiritual practice, recovery, yoga and so forth - are the last people who should be sitting out the social and political issues of our day. And there’s an important reason for this: People on such journeys are adepts at change. They know that the mechanics of the heart and mind are the fundamental drivers of transformation.

The great reformers of the world turn into the great misanthropists, if circumstances or organization do not permit them to act.

Recognizing that something is wrong is the first step toward changing the world.

I want to continue to speak out on issues that matter to me. I want to have even more of a voice.

Poverty without a people's government looks like hopelessness, but to see poverty in organized communities is to see relief-in-progress.

Movements are not radical. Movements are the American way. A small group of abolitionists writing and speaking eventually led to the end of slavery. A few stirred-up women brought about women's voting. The Populist movement, the Progressive movement, the anti-Vietnam War movement, the women's movement - the examples go on and on of 'little people' getting together and telling the truth about their lives. They made our government act.

Either Malcolm X or Martin [Luther King] could have played the role of a unifier, but it was - Malcolm as long as he remained within the Nation of Islam, talking to the converted, he did not represent a fundamental threat to the American government.

We can only live the changes we wish to see: we cannot think our way to humanity. Every one of us, every group, must become the model of that which we desire to create. We must break the obsolete social and economic systems that divide the world between the over-privileged and the under-privileged. Each of us, whether government leader or protester, business executive or worker, professor or student, share a common guilt.