Ice Cube Quotes

The truth is that all civic and social change is friction. Politics is friction. The only way you can bend the arc of history is to create that kind of friction, which is something that makes most people incredibly uncomfortable but which, for whatever reason, because of my upbringing or because of my genetics, is something that doesn't bug me.

Agitate, agitate, agitate.

Agitated by revolutionary movements, these grow in proportion to the force that resists them.

If you can't raise consciousness, at least raise hell.

It's not enough to say we need to love each other, you have to go behind that and say we need to change these policies, we need to fight, we need to protest, we need to agitate for change.

My first civil disobedience arrest for social justice was in 1986 for protesting the SDI.

We who in engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive.

I was involved in some peaceful protests.

I fought for peace in the fifties.

You don't have a peaceful revolution. You don't have a turn-the-cheek revolution. There's no such thing as a nonviolent revolution.

I believe boycotts are wrong.

But you know, the system almost destroyed itself while it was goin' on trying to destroy us.

Poetry is a political act because it involves telling the truth.

When you're a catalyst for change, you make enemies - and I'm proud of the ones I've got.

Take away the violence and who will hear the men of peace?

Indifference is harder to fight than hostility, and there is nothing that kills an agitation like having everybody admit that it is fundamentally right.

Every revolution has its counterrevolution - that is a sign the revolution is for real.

Sometimes going to jail is just the price you have to pay for social reform or social change.

Only force would produce social change.

Power Concedes Nothing

It takes a lot of punishment to be able to do anything to change the social order.

If you want to change a country, you're going to be bumped every now and then.

People want me to shut up, but I won't. I believe social change is possible; that's why I'm an activist.

I decided to protest in 2016 because I was feeling helpless and somebody needed to do something.

If you listen to 'The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,' by Gil Scott-Heron, that album is dripping with rage.