Boots Riley Quotes

I don't think just scaring people is enough. That worked during the freeze days to a major extent, but we really didn't achieve that much even at that time. You have to have more, you have to give people hope and a vision of a better world.

You don't need to invade a place or install a new government to help bring about a positive change.

For sure, the 'Obamania' that's fast taking hold reflects an incredible thirst for change in global politics and, dare I say, a wave of optimism that things can be different.

Progressive change in this country has never come from above.

The word Revolution, which we Socialists are so often forced to use, has a terrible sound in most people's ears, even when we have explained to them that it does not necessarily mean a change accompanied by riot and all kinds of violence

We don’t need to wait three generations for change.

There are a lot of things that need correcting in this country, but there is not the slightest use of feeling over-pessimistic about it..

There's nothing wrong in America that can't be fixed by what's right in America.

On one hand, I am very pessimistic, but on the other hand, if I didn't believe that speaking up would do something, I wouldn't have spoken.

If you want change, and you want things to get better across the country, there's different ways to go about it.

Many of my supporters, they want to change the system, and they are not in favor of the establishment.

I promise that, one day, everything's going to be better for you.

Every day that we wake up is a good day. Every breath that we take is filled with hope for a better day. Every word that we speak is a chance to change what is bad into something good.

The lyrics stand today (1980). They're still my feeling about politics. I want to see the plan. I want to know what you're going to do after you've knocked it all down. I mean, can't we use some of it? What's the point of bombing Wall Street? If you want to change the system, change the system. It's no good shooting people.

I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that every-thing will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.

It's been a long time coming. But I know a change is gonna come

Maybe the songs that we sing are wrong, Maybe the dreams that we dream are gone, So bring it on home and it won't be long, It's getting better man!

Things will get easier, people's minds will change, and you should be alive to see it.

America never was America to me And yet I swear this oath - America will be!

Antonio Gramsci said that social reformers should have pessimism of the intellect and optimism of the will. This means that one must have the intellectual ability to see how bad things are and the emotional ability to look forward with hope. It's a hard combination to sustain, but if you can do it, you can change the world.

We appreciate yesterday, but we're looking for a better tomorrow.

Let's keep refusing to accept the world as it is and insisting on building the world we dream of. Don't let the haters have the last word.

I am an absurd idealist. But I believe that all that must come true. For, unless it comes true, the world will be laid desolate. And I believe that it can come true.

You know how I always believe in the future. Without disorder, the revolution is impossible; knowing that, I did not lose hope, and I do not lose it now.

It is time for us to say no, we are not going to backwards, we're going forward into a brighter future.