Harry Belafonte Quotes

If the government or the parties won't address our needs, we will. It's about direct action, even civil disobedience.

The most exciting things going on in America today are movements to change America.

You don't disarm any white community by confining yourself to any particular method. If you want freedom, then you should get freedom like Patrick Henry said, by whatever method is necessary.

We know what the birth of a revolution looks like: A student stands before a tank. A fruit seller sets himself on fire. A line of monks link arms in a human chain. Crowds surge, soldiers fire, gusts of rage pull down the monuments of tyrants, and maybe, sometimes, justice rises from the flames.

There is a weapon we can fight with. That is the weapon of political action.

At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this. It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in.

One, a mass movement from within, which, as you know, is constantly being put down brutally but which, again, regroups and moves forward as is happening right now as we are speaking.

No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution... revolution is but thought carried into action.

The Occupy movement found places where people who were feeling that anger could come and share it - and that is, as we all know, extremely important in any political movement. The Occupy sites became a way you could gauge the levels of anger and discontent.

Dissidents can't be dissidents forever; we are dissidents because we don't want to be dissidents.

Social paralysis is strong and stands firmly in the way of change on the ground level. As allies, we have to prepare ourselves to step into the fire when necessary, even - and especially - when said fire is merely a still-lit cigarette tossed carelessly onto the street.

We were like heroes, to stand there and observe the police, and the police were scared to move upon us.

Ready for the revolution!

For we went, changing our country more often than our shoes In the class war, despairing When there was only injustice and no resistance

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will.

I live in the United States, but I do not know exactly where. My address is wherever there is a fight against oppression. My address is like my shoes; it travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong.

Never Tire of Protesting

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

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.

I am not the least bit surprised that injustice persists. I'm also not surprised that resistance to injustice persists.

For those of us in the opposition movement under dictatorships, part of our job is confronting police and spending time in prison. So, a dissident not only needs to learn how to oppose oppression but also how to face the crackdowns and time in prison.

I'm proud to be part of the resistance.

We might not be back. I might be in jail. I might be anywhere. But when I leave, you'll remember I said, with the last words on my lips, that I am a revolutionary. And you're going to have to keep on saying that. You're going to have to say that I am a proletariat; I am the people.

I think there's a weapon of cynicism to say, 'Protest doesn't work. Organizing doesn't work. Y'all are a bunch of hippies. You know, it doesn't do anything,' because, frankly, it's said out of fear, because it is a potent force for political change.

We have a big platform we can use to make change in this country. It starts with going home to our own cities and making change there. It starts with encouraging people to vote and using our platform to talk to people with power in this country to create change.