William Safire Quotes

Movements of people create change - not just any one person or organization, but when lots of people are in motion around a shared vision.

Real, sustainable community change requires the initiative and engagement of community members.

The future belongs to crowds.

There's nothing quite as powerful as people feeling they can have impact and make a difference. When you've got that going for you, I think it's a very powerful way to implement change.

You don't have to become Mother Teresa to make an impact in the world. But nothing can be achieved if, at the very least, we are not talking about it.

My individual power is limited. I want to use my high-profile way to wake people up to take action together to do good things. I can only awake them with my performance art and creativity.

The media has affected everybody's consciousness much more than most people will admit.

I think that celebrities should never underestimate their power. I mean just to draw attention, because then people get involved on a personal level.

The press should be not only a collective propagandist and a collective agitator, but also a collective organizer of the masses.

When people come together in large numbers they become aware of their strength.

You have a tendency to mix show with justice....You give a theater show to the press all over the world.

You cannot do anything without rousing the masses to action.

Social change comes not only from the courtroom, but from talking to the media.

Now if you know what makes one person's life change, then you know what makes a nation change - because a nation is simply a large group of individuals.

The tactics we were able to use in the 1960s, 1970s - let's have a campaign, mobilize everybody and, therefore, social pressure - stop littering, or stop spitting, or be courteous to one another: I am not sure that kind of approach will work anymore.

It's very important that people who are feeling the need to do something... get activated.

Not everybody has to work on the big problems, but if nobody does, they don't get solved.

The major job was getting people to understand that they had something within their power that they could use, and it could only be used if they understood what was happening and how group action could counter violence.

Causes was founded with the mission of empowering anyone to change the world. Our model is based upon the belief that everyone has the power to have an outsized impact on the world by banding together with other like-minded individuals, taking direct action, and inspiring their friends and their friends' friends to join in.

One woman is a pest and two women is a team, but three women or more is a coalition. If you can bring a lot of people together as a coalition, you can get a lot changed.

I'm not trying to amass people in the streets. I just want them to be more aware.

There are enough people who are starting to be actively involved that we can turn things around. And we need to encourage others to become involved.

I want to make a difference with people who want to make a difference, doing something that makes a difference.

The great news is that that sort of group of people and that sort of sensibility is beginning to become more active again. And I think partly it just has to do with the time. It has to do with the culture of resistance. The necessity is for us to pull together and to speak up and to make work and be visible.

[Martin Luther ] King didn't pick his leadership position. Most movements are not started by single people.