Erin Gruwell Quotes

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

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.

Power is never so overwhelming that there's no room for resistance.

Rights did not just fall out of the sky. They were the result of struggle.

You gotta call it out first; it always has to be called out when we need social change, but this is how social change happens: you call it out. People had to call out child labor. People had to call out, 'Hey time's up; we need to vote. We live in this country.' People had to call out 'time's up' on enslaving people, you know.

All over this world people are standing up for freedom.

I'm not going to sit around and be peace and love with somebody's boot on my neck.

I have spent a lot of my life trying to do good and be a humanitarian, to write about difficult places, and to tell the story of oppressed peoples.

The inability of those in power to still the voices of their own consciences is the great force leading to change.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can't ride you unless your back is bent.

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

There will be no prison which can hold our movement down.

I have always looked on disobedience toward the oppressive as the only way to use the miracle of having been born.

There's nothing automatic about political change, about liberation.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Fight the power that be. Fight the power.

They have learned that resistance is actually possible. The holds are beginning to slip away.

An oppressed people will always rise.

The only weapon I have is my microphone and my unmistakable faith as a militant for change, veritable change.”

I want every American to stand up for his rights, even if he has to sit down for them.

Power Concedes Nothing

Agitated by revolutionary movements, these grow in proportion to the force that resists them.

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.

You may hiss as much as you please, but women will get their rights anyway. You can’t stop us, neither

Rights are to be taken, not requested; seized, not begged for.