Shane Claiborne Quotes

Every generation has someone who steps outside the norm and offers a voice for the unspeakable attitudes of that time. I represent everything that's supposed to be wrong, everything that's forbidden.

Methods of thought which claim to give the lead to our world in the name of revolution have become, in reality, ideologies of consent and not of rebellion.

Rebellion is obsolete - change things from the inside working out.

Just by making a decision to stay out of politics, you are making the decision to allow others to shape politics and exert power over you. And if you are alienated from the current political system, then just by staying out of it, if you do nothing to change it, you simply entrench it.

As women, we know that we must always find ways to change the process because the present institutions want to hold on to power and keep the status quo.

I am not the Jesus of the official church tolerated by those in power. I am not your superstar.

Reggae music is not an easy music to like when it comes to the power in society. 'Cause it talks about changing society. You won't find it readily accepted.

The people in power will not disappear voluntarily, giving flowers to the cops just isn't going to work. This thinking is fostered by the establishment; they like nothing better than love and nonviolence.

One advantage of not being in power is that we can dream of reshaping the world exactly as we please.

Stop being a consumer, fight the power!

There’s no reason why an anarchist can’t be a saint.

It is a wrong form of government we are living under, and we, the workers stand for the overthrow of the whole damnable institution.

The position of what is generally called great people has of late become extremely difficult. They are more attacked and calumniated, and judged with less indulgence than private individuals. What they have lost in this way, they have not by any means regained in any other. Ever since the revolution of 1790 they are much less secure than they used to be, and the transition from sovereign power to absolute want has been as frequent as sudden.

It’s only at certain points in history that people realize just how much power that they have.

Ripping off is an act of revolutionary love.

Somehow, the guys in power have to be reached by counter-power, or through a change in their hearts and minds, or change will not come.

It is easier to fix roads and train police than to change the deep-rooted incentives and habits of those in power.

A revolution is generally only evolution--an explosive sequence of events crowded into a short space of time, but leaving more of the ancient regime untouched than usually is at first apparent.

Collective action is a means of power, a means by which individuals can more fully realize their individual values.

'The Prince' was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. 'Rules for Radicals' is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.

A Left that does nothing achieves nothing.

I always looked at rock & roll as the voice of regular people, of an economic group not in charge.

The mainstream is always under attack.

That punk approach of 'We don't wanna get big' is really a bourgeois thing. It's not a tactic of people that actually have been successful at changing things.

When the things in front of you in life reveal how messed up the system is, you lose faith in the system pretty quickly. You develop a contrarian attitude. Your instinct is to disagree with the status quo and then, if you can, to try and shake it up.