Tavis Smiley Quotes

I brought attention to the fact that people need to be more involved in politics and not just let the establishment continue to control politics.

My advice is very simple: if you can win a small battle, it gives you confidence in the political process to take on bigger battles, and so it is very much a bottom-up grass-roots way of doing politics.

Well, it's very clear that the Arab population is rising because they'd like to have a say in the running of their affairs, running of their government, and this is very legitimate.

Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

An old African leader says about leadership, he says that leadership should never be shared; it should always remain in the hands of the dispossessed people. We will lead the revolution.

Political development should start at the grassroots.

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

Influence elected government officials, don't just elect them. Your right is to govern yourselves, not just to choose your governors.

What the working-classes really need is to be allowed some part in the direction of public affairs.

Change never comes from the White House. It comes from your house and my house.

In a democratic society like ours, relief must come through an aroused popular conscience that sears the conscience of the people's representatives.

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

We can't sit around waiting for big government, big business, big religion etc. to save us. We need to get informed and take inspired action.

The reason that I started the Black Futures Lab is because I have some clarity about what I think needs to happen in relationship to electoral organizing. It's not a destination. It is a set of tools that we use to engage people that we care about, en masse, around issues that are important to us.

I think we need to raise our voices, and we need to demonstrate to the people we represent, as well as the American people, that their leaders have a responsibility to take action.

Each of us should choose which course of action we must take; education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes, but let it not be said that we did nothing.

By dint of that concern and because that society was willing to examine its particular reality, Solidarity could come into existence.

We need to keep ringing the bell, wake people up to get our democracy together. Farm workers are like a symbol, and it is good that people are paying attention.

People are fed up - and I think quite rightfully so. But what are they proposing as an alternative to just being upset or feeling disillusioned or abandoned? That kind of protest movement really needs to happen on a much bigger scale, but there needs to be a clearer message.

I'm trying to avail myself of the various technologies to get the message that Washington needs to be cleaned up, that the system that's in place is not what's beneficial in the country.

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

The power of the people and the power of reason are one.

When the three branches of government have failed to represent the citizenry and the mass of the media has failed to represent the citizenry, then the citizenry better represent the citizenry.

Let's get with it, guys: You don't need to hear a Ministry song to get political. You should be political on your own. We're just a side project to society. So do I care what people think about me personally? No. I just do what I do.