Martin Sheen Quotes

Aside from my family, I have two great loves in my life: acting and the fight for social justice.

There's still injustice happening in my world. I sing my songs at concerts and I'm so grateful that the people are ready to hear them.

The rhythm of being an activist today involves a pretty simple rhythm. You have to open your eyes to the reality before you. You have to look and see.

Look at what I've done my entire life. I have been working on behalf of civil rights, women's rights, human rights for years and I know how challenging it is to change our political system and I have the highest regard for those who have put themselves on the line.

Rights are won only by those who make their voices heard.

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I heard Dr. King speaking on the radio, and it seemed like he was saying, "John Robert Lewis, you too can make a contribution. You can get involved!"

I began to realise that we are all oppressed which is why I would like to do something about it, though I'm not sure where my place is.

Lost rights are never regained by appeals to the conscience of the usurpers, but by relentless struggle....goa ts are used for sacrificial offerings and not lions.

Don't let complexity stop you. Be activists. Take on the big inequities. It will be one of the great experiences of your lives.

What's more important is that we talk about movements; change happens through movements. The movement to end slavery, the movement to bring justice for those who have been left out of the system, movements to include women, movements around sexual preference - all these movements brought about change.

All over this world people are standing up for freedom.

He [Martin Luther King Jr.] always used to say you have no choice about being born or dying. The only thing you have a choice about is what you die for.

I find myself moved by social justice issues. I'm not sure where that will lead me. I'm willing to nurture it.

Social justice has always been a part of my inspiration. For example, when the Vietnam War was going on, I wrote a song about that.

I was always interested in social change but never actually did anything about it.

Democratic rights develop when the ruled demand them and have the means to prevail.

Abolition didn't just happen - people made it happen. Women's suffrage didn't just happen - people made it happen. Civil Rights legislation didn't just happen - people made it happen. And marriage equality didn't just happen, either - people made it happen.

I am going to fight for important things.

If there is no struggle, there is no progress....This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.

Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the struggle for equal rights.

Let us be enraged about injustice, but let us not be destroyed by it.

We must make an issue, create an event, and establish a national position for ourselves: and never may expect to be respected as men and women, until we have undertaken some fearless, bold, and adventurous deeds of daring . . .

To me, activism requires you to try very hard to open your eyes to the world as it is. See as much as you can, knowing that whatever you see is going to be partial. That you possess a partial consciousness in an infinite and expanding universe.

When John Kennedy was assassinated I was twenty-three, a stockbroker on Wall Street and married, and I never ever thought that politics would be anything that I would be a part of. But I realized that I had to get involved. Then, when Martin Luther King was assassinated and the Vietnam War was raging, I felt that my world was falling apart. I had these two beautiful children - three and one - and I just said, "I have to make it better."