Van Jones Quotes

As Frederick Douglas, the famous abolitionist, said: "power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will." You need the truth, and you also need a demand, and you need to bring that demand into the realm of electoral politics. If you don't do that, it's very hard to get such an entrenched machine to move.

Life in America is nothing but struggle, you gotta continue to try to overcome. Keep organizing, Obama said, keep organizing, grab a clipboard, get your signatures and start protesting, run for office yourself, but the shtruggle, the shtruggle is what defines us and we must continue with the shtruggle. Just pathetic, folks, the whole thing is pathetic.

All I ask is this: Do something. Try something. Speaking out, showing up, writing a letter, a check, a strongly worded e-mail. Pick a cause – there are few unworthy ones. And nudge yourself past the brink of tacit support to action. Once a month, once a year, or just once...Even just learning enough about a subject so you can speak against an opponent eloquently makes you an unusual personage. Start with that. Any one of you would have cried out, would have intervened, had you been in that crowd in Bashiqa. Well thanks to digital technology, you’re all in it now.

Unless women are prepared to fight politically they must be content to be ignored politically.

The rhythm of being an activist today involves a pretty simple rhythm. You have to open your eyes to the reality before you. You have to look and see.

I have one thing in common with the emerging black nations of Africa: We both have voices, and we are discovering what we can do with them.

By themselves, they are not enough; we also need to engage in political action.

People need to see what's going on, and they have to be exposed to the mechanisms that can help make it right.

Democracy doesn't begin at the top; it begins at the bottom, when flesh-and-blood human beings fight to rekindle what Arlo Guthrie calls 'The Patriot's Dream.

I'm involved in issues, and issues are about grass-roots politics.

It's important to be active in the causes that are important to you... That's how we make changes in this world.

I always saw politics as an expansion of my role as a mom.

I do feel, in a sense, the rules of engagement for citizenship has changed, and we must encourage other people to speak up and to take action.

The organizer dedicated to changing the life of a particular community must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community.

Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.

I want to act, if I can, as a bridge for people who read 'Shock Doctrine' or 'No Logo'. People who are sitting out for whatever reasons.

Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.

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

The people need someone who's closer to them and the American people need someone who will be their change agent and fight for the issues that are important to them.

I think we sometimes forget that we have so many other places to create change. My dad taught me this, but the political is one spot to make change. But so is writing a book.

You can complain about problems, and you can suffer from the ramifications of issues that are social in nature and impact you, but the best thing you can do is get off your couch, get out of your home and go do something about it.

When things happen socially in our community, as artists, we've got the right to exercise our voices if we choose to, use our powers for good.

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.

My mother informed me that the way to be a change agent to create change, the first line of defense, or however you want to phrase that, is politics and government.

We're told, 'If you want to change the world, vote.' And really, if you want to change the world, there's a lot more things that you can do.