Karen Armstrong Quotes

Any realistic vision of change must be based on the notion of empowerment of people.

AIM in essence is a movement rather than just an organization. It is a manifestation of the desperation of our people.

The movers and shakers on our planet, aren't the billionaires and generals, they are the incredible numbers of people around the world filled with love for neighbor and for the earth who are resisting, remaking, restoring, renewing and revitalising.

Leaders may inspire, but only when the people decide to act does the leader's vision become a movement.

We are in the middle of a world revolution, and I don't mean Communism. The revolution I'm talking about is that of the little, poor people all over the world. They're beginning to learn what there is in life, and to learn what they are missing.

Acting is one thing, but actually trying to change the world and the way people think to make people's lives better? That's the stuff I'm most proud of.

You keep plugging away--that's the way social change takes place. That's the way every social change in history has taken place: by a lot of people, who nobody ever heard of, doing work.

For us going forward, it's to not reverse the dynamism of American society and the diversity. It's to pay attention to the people who are being ruined by it, and so this doesn't happen again.

Ordinary people can bring about change.

I'm persuaded that if most people saw what I see on a regular basis, they would want change.

What is a change-maker? What has Hillary Clinton changed? It is filled with all the cliches that New Agers and leftists glom on to, like "common sense gun control legislation." But it never was defined.

I'm going to tell my contestants: Be Bernie Sanders. Be the person people want and love.

When I'm talking to people, I find myself quoting the three organizing rules of Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter was initiated by three young women, and too few people know that. But, anyway, the first one is lead with love. The second is low ego, high impact. The third is move with the speed of trust. I must say those make me feel very hopeful for the future.

Most of you didn't think that helping people share books would be a subversive act...Yet the fact is that you have chosen a profession that has become radical.

We want to make nation-building a people's movement.

You can't expect people who didn't exist as a community at all until about twenty years ago to have formed a political movement. This attack on the LGBT community was very shocking to the people who consider themselves to be activists. They're basically playing in the sandbox, and there's a tank coming! And what are they supposed to do - use the plastic shovel to push the tank back? But since the homosexual propaganda legislation, people have really stepped up, educated themselves politically, and grown by leaps and bounds.

Of course, we have leaders in the African American community as well that we've all worked with. One of the great rewards of being an activist is that you get to meet all these wonderful people. And there are many unsung heroes. There are so many out there that are good people that are working hard.

When we really need to work hard to make sure that these ideas about constructive social change culturally, ecologically and politically, come to pass. And that's only going to happen if people support the leadership, because the same power structures are still in place, and it's not in their best interests to change.

I have described Swaraj as Ramarajya and Ramarajya is an impossibility unless we have thousands of Sitas.

It's the next phase of authorship of this country's energy future. It's gonna come from the people. It's not gonna be deus ex machina or Obama ex machina, or science ex machina. It's gonna be the people. It's not going to be a wind energy company that comes in and saves the day. It's going to be the people who figure this out.

From Gandhi to Mandela, from the American patriot to the Polish shipbuilders, the makers of revolutions have not come from the top.

The few have not strength to achieve great changes unaided; the many have not wisdom to be moved by truth unmixed.

Integration begins the day after the minds of the people are desegregated.

I was always a politician from the day the civil rights people chose me as their protest singer.

If there is going to be change, real change, it will have to work its way from the bottom up, from the people themselves. That's how change happens.