Activist Quotes

#1. The Rio Earth Summit in 1992 changed my life completely, turning me into an activist. From the air, you see things you can't see from the ground - you really understand the impact of man, even in a place you know well. My work is meant to convince people we can no longer live like this.

Yann Arthus-Bertrand

#2. People have to stop saying that just because someone is an anti-gay activist they might be gay. They're DEFINITELY GAY!!

Bill Maher

#3. I would be an activist but never a politician. As an activist, nobody owns you.

Sinbad

#4. Someone who does an act. In a democratic society, you're supposed to be an activist; that is, you participate. It could be a letter written to an editor.

Studs Terkel

#5. Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the most beloved Buddhist teachers in the West, a rare combination of mystic, poet, scholar, and activist. His luminous presence and the simple, compassionate clarity of his writings have touched countless lives.

Joanna Macy

#6. 'Generation Food' is a collaboration between myself and author/activist Raj Patel that will tell stories about efforts around the world to try to solve the food crisis - through a documentary, a book, a website and mobile apps.

Steve James

#7. I don't have one role that I want to play. I guess ... I want to be a producer. I want to be an activist. I want to be proactive in bringing about work for men, women, boys, girls, everybody who is good at what they do and deserve a shot at it.

Octavia Spencer

#8. Activist: not as much acting as it is reacting- which is my story

Candace Gingrich-Jones

#9. I'm an activist for gay marriage equality and children's rights. I'm the face of Share Our Strength.

Sandra Lee

#10. I'm a raging leftist political activist. I've never had a spiritual thought in my life related to God. I'm clear that that's a human invention.

Patch Adams

#11. I hope to continue to be an activist for kids and teenagers and especially girls who are living with HIV/AIDS, because all over the world, people don't have the same rights that we do in the United States.

Jenna Bush

#12. I'm a proud vegan, whistle-blower, and animal rights activist.

Steve-O

#13. Activist government overreach and ongoing economic stagnation have shown us why Washington should not try to displace what is best left to civil society.

Paul Ryan

#14. Preserve, Conserve, Inspire, Teach. Empowering children to be planet-citizens; to care about the planet, themselves and eachtother! Breath-of-fresh-air books that speak to the heart of children - is what matters to me."
- Stephanie Tara, author, mom, activist

Stephanie Lisa Tara

#15. Hanging out in coffee shops and talking about one day being a writer or an activist or an entrepreneur is just about the worst thing you can do.

Jeff Goins

#16. Another part of what gave me a questioning, rabble-rousing, activist heart and soul is that when all these heavy events went down, my parents did not shelter the kids from it.

Jello Biafra

#17. As a writer and sometime activist who needs to promote my books and articles and occasionally rally people to one cause or another, I found Facebook fast and convenient. Though I never really used it to socialize, I figured it was OK to let other people do that, and I benefited from their behavior.

Douglas Rushkoff

#18. I've been an activist in the LGBT community for a long time. I think nothing's changed, I'm just a little bit more focused on the 'T' now than I was on the 'L' or the 'G.'

Chaz Bono

#19. I'm not a policy maker. I'm not even a very great activist. My main thing is to make things that speak for the culture that I live in.

Wangechi Mutu

#20. My early years as a political activist were dominated by the poll tax.

Nicola Sturgeon

#21. I can't remember when I wasn't an animal rights activist.

Ali MacGraw

#22. I won't use abortion as a litmus test with a pro-choice individual. Someone that is an activist on the abortion issue, I think, goes outside the pale, and I cannot support an activist on the abortion issue.

Ken Buck

#23. I don't have the activist temperament. I like listening to divergent points of view and hearing people out. I like getting along. I even like being liked, although activists of any stripe should get rid of that handicap at the outset.

Victoria Moran

#24. I want to be an activist professor.

Tariq Ramadan

#25. The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between the requirement that position be taken on current issues as they arise and the desire that one's contributions will somehow survive the ravages of time.

Angela Davis

#26. I've been an activist since my late teens. I take this very seriously and try to use the gift that's been given to me - access to the media - as positively as I can.

George Takei

#27. I've become an animal rights activist.

Steve Wynn

#28. I was verbally attacked by a Momentum activist and Jeremy Corbyn supporter who used traditional antisemitic slurs to attack me for being part of a 'media conspiracy'.

Ruth Smeeth

#29. I was raised in a very activist household so that I grew up surrounded by people who were activists.

Pearl Cleage

#30. The goal of the spiritual activist is to find inner peace even in externally chaotic circumstances.

Marianne Williamson

#31. Jesus was contemplative and activist, mystic and prophet, Spirit and form, God and human, absolute and relative, Creator and creature, existing for eternity and existing in time.

Amos Smith

#32. My passion for others and my experience as an actor and citizen of the world has naturally shaped me into a social and political activist who finds fulfillment from their work with meaningful organizations.

Sufe Bradshaw

#33. While 45 of the 50 States have either a State constitutional amendment or a statute that preserves the current definition of marriage, left-wing activist judges and officials at the local levels have struck down State laws protecting marriage.

John Boehner

#34. The Christian Coalition of Alabama will work to ensure that reckless trial lawyers and activist judges will not be able to open the floodgates to increase taxes and that private, Christian, parochial and home-school families will be protected.

Johnny Giles

#35. It takes a strong stomach and a thick skin to be a female activist fighting online censorship in Pakistan.

Rebecca MacKinnon

#36. 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.

Bill Ayers

#37. President Obama appears to me to have elevated and implemented the artist-activist concept to the role of empowered servant-leader ...

Aberjhani

#38. I am a gay activist and I say that proudly. I voted no on Prop 8.

Katy Perry

#39. I am an activist. I have a really big pulpit with my fiction and I love knowing that I can make people think.

Jodi Picoult

#40. My mother was an activist; so was my father. They came from a generation of young Somalis who were actively involved in getting independence for Somalia in 1960.

Iman

#41. If you want to call me an activist attorney general, I will proudly accept that label.

Eric Holder

#42. I intensely dislike the word 'critic,' because it puts you in an antagonistic position to artists. I've learned everything that I know about art from artists ... I see myself as an advocate and an activist and a writer.

Lucy R. Lippard

#43. You're either an activist or an inactivist. I want to stop this.

Ric O'Barry

#44. We can follow the example of those who remembered that the role of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much integrity as possible, but rather to confront and take down those systems.

Derrick Jensen

#45. On the third day of their honeymoon, infamous environmental activist Stewie Woods and his new bride, Annabel Bellotti, were spiking trees in the forest when a cow exploded and blew them up. Until then, their marriage had been happy.

C.J. Box

#46. I'm always the one with the activist friends. I've been an activist very little.

Peter Carey

#47. I think to many people the term 'activist film' implies a film with a single point of view - something designed to provoke outrage and urge action on a particular issue - sort of the film equivalent of a rally. 'If a Tree Falls' is not that kind of film.

Marshall Curry

#48. An activist is one who is actively involved in creating community, whether that is locally in their neighborhood or internationally. It is an admirable quality.

Jasmine Guy

#49. I really wasn't very involved politically with anything up until that point. Then I started reading about the second Palestinian Intifada, and I spoke to friends in activist and journalism circles. Then, somehow by complete luck, I ended up at Democracy Now.

Sharif Abdel Kouddous

#50. I think the best way to be an activist is to live your life well and be honest. It means being out. If you are not comfortable marching, you can make a big difference just by working side by side with someone who actually knows you're gay and a fine human being.

Melissa Etheridge

#51. Bioethics has hardened into an activist ideology that pervades the medical world, the schools, and government.

John Leo

#52. An activist is someone who makes an effort to see problems that are not being addressed and then makes an effort to make their voice heard. Sometimes there are so many things that it's almost impossible to make your voice heard in every area, but you can sure try.

Joanne Woodward

#53. The white, the Hispanic, the black, the Arab, the Jew, the woman, the Native American, the small farmer, the businessperson, the environmentalist, the peace activist, the young, the old, the lesbian, the gay and the disabled make up the American quilt

Jesse Jackson

#54. There was a French activist and writer, Simone de Beauvoir, who said, 'You are not born woman. You become one' ... Words I live by.

Bruce Jenner

#55. To me, you're either an activist or an inactivist.

Louie Psihoyos

#56. Unfortunately, I don't think I can call myself an activist because I don't really do enough of anything.

Merritt Wever

#57. I am republic
I am maoist
I am activist
and I am this
and I am that
but why?
Why can't; I be

Santosh Kalwar

#58. As a human rights activist it is concerning to me that those committing atrocities against vulnerable people view these atrocities as 'progress', and assert with pride and conviction that they are 'Christians' and that they are doing 'God's will'.

Christina Engela

#59. I am in the lineage of Gil Scott-Heron, great activist-type artists. But I'm also in the lineage of a Miles Davis - you know, that liked nice things also.

Kanye West

#60. I can't say I'm anything like a devoted animal rights activist, but I certainly oppose cruelty to animals.

Robert Paul Weston

#61. I was one of those kids who wanted to do everything, I wanted to be a marine biologist, an actress, a writer, an environmentalist, an activist.

Kristin Kreuk

#62. Every day I get better at knowing that it is not a choice to be an activist; rather, it is the only way to hold on to the better parts of my human self. It is the only way I can live and laugh without guilt.

Staceyann Chin

#63. I'm an activist and I come from a very socialist background. For me, my thinking was formed by great thought leaders. And wealth preserving wasn't part of my thinking.

Anita Roddick

#64. I never thought about myself as an activist when we were coming along. I wasn't a joiner. You know, I love the people I love. I didn't care whether - they could be a Democrat, Republican, communist, you know, and anything but a racist.

Ruby Dee

#65. Because marriage is a sacred institution and the foundation of society, it should not be redefined by activist judges. For the good of families, children and society, I support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage.

George W. Bush

#66. Former Secretary (Hillary) Clinton has dedicated her life to serving and engaging people across the world in democracy. These efforts as a citizen, an activist, and a leader have earned Secretary Clinton this year's Liberty Medal.

Jeb Bush

#67. I have never been an activist for anything.

Jim Parsons

#68. While I was studying film at the Academy, the problems started. I wasn't a political activist directly in the time of Saddam [Hussein], because the dictator was so cruel and brutal that no one could criticize or complain. I felt futile and empty. The only solution in Iraq was to run away.

Hassan Blasim

#69. We all have our moments. But you can switch it around. Then you've got the activist type who bases their decisions in the development of a character on what it symbolizes to society - what the ethical code is.

Michelle Rodriguez

#70. In the case of "A Rape on Campus," the risk of being taken in was compounded by Ms. Erdely's approach. She was steered to "Jackie," as she referred to the University of Virginia student in question, by a party with a vested interest: a rape survivor and sexual assault activist on campus.

Anonymous

#71. transformed, and transported by one specific guide - a visionary, an activist, an outrageous fighter and dreamer. I have come to know these women (and sometimes men) as Vagina Warriors.

Eve Ensler

#72. Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.

Dolores Huerta

#73. I'm a citizen in a democracy. To call me an activist would be redundant. It's not a spectator sport. If we all become non-participants, it no longer works.

Michael Moore

#74. Are you a murderer?"
"That depends, are you one of those animal activist[s] that believe meat is murder?

Tammy Blackwell

#75. From activist stage, I just spoke and said whatever I had to say. When the writing started, I would just read it. Then I had the interest into going into musical aspects. When that happened in '86, I liked the result of work we did in the studio.

John Trudell

#76. It's been important to me to be a good activist, a good thinker, a good musician, a good singer, and a good entertainer. You can't do it all, but I have walked those delicate lines as best I know how.

Holly Near

#77. I think being an activist and an artist is an interesting contradiction, because so often they are at odds with one another. When you write as an artist you have to clean the palate of your own politics in creating characters and activism is kind of the exact opposite.

Eve Ensler

#78. My mother's husband Harry Bloom was a writer, a novelist, a reporter, and an anti-apartheid activist.

Orlando Bloom

#79. I am a Doctor, but above all else I consider myself an activist for peace, justice and care for all people.

Patch Adams

#80. When the passion of the mystic for God is married to the passion of the activist for justice, a new fire is born.

Andrew Harvey

#81. Maybe I should have gone into politics. If you were a political activist, election season brought moments of intensity, whichever side you were on, and meanwhile here I was inarguably withering away,

Michel Houellebecq

#82. John Milton almost single-handedly created the identity of the writer as political activist.

Anna Beer

#83. I fully realize that a person who stands for what I stand for, an activist, a gay activist, becomes the target or the potential target for a person who is insecure, terrified, afraid, or very disturbed with themselves.

Harvey Milk

#84. Whether you're working with kindergartners or adults, 8th-graders or college students, you undertake what you do, as educator and activist William Ayers puts it, "with hope and purpose but without guarantees.

Gregory Michie

#85. I am not a lobbyist. I am not a political activist. I am not a leader, as far as I'm concerned.

Jose Antonio Vargas

#86. Martin Luther King was only an activist for 13 years and every year he changed and every year he became more radical. By the end he was calling for revolution. People don't know this because they go to too many prayer breakfasts on his birthday.

Bill Ayers

#87. I was an activist long before I even entertained the possibility of being an actor.

William Baldwin

#88. There seems to be a psychological law of inertia that bogs down every hopeful activist and subverts every revolution. When compassion and empathy fail, backsliding begins. Or totalitarianism.

Patrick Califia-Rice

#89. Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist, and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesnt make a corporation a terrorist

Winona LaDuke

#90. I have been a political activist most of my life and many groups have attempted to label me as a criminal because of my outspoken beliefs. I am not a criminal and I have never been one.

Assata Shakur

#91. I've been an animal rights activist and a vegan for 28 years. The entire time, I've asked myself: How do I best advance an animal rights agenda?

Moby

#92. To make peace is not a passive endeavor, but rather an activist mindset that works toward the end of conflict. In our world, it is not the soldier but the activist who calls for peace.

Dillon Burroughs

#93. I think there's a green side to John Kerry, if you like, that he's an environmental activist. His record on the environment is as best as you have on a pro-environment record of anybody in the U.S. Senate.

Douglas Brinkley

#94. Because I'm a civil rights activist, I am also an animal rights activist. Animals and humans suffer and die alike. Violence causes the same pain, the same spilling of blood, the same stench of death, the same arrogant, cruel and vicious taking of life. We shouldn't be a part of it.

Dick Gregory

#95. The Congress is not willing to think about the long term. They act like activist shareholders, to use that phrase again. They're not thinking about what can we do that will make us richer, safer, and stronger next year, and the year after, and five and 10 years out.

Hillary Clinton

#96. Being an activist and an artist - those two things should go together. You should allow the artistic sensibility to control some of your activism, but never should it be allowed to paralyze you.

Bill Ayers

#97. I'm not an activist. I'm trying to get off the whole atheist racket.

Julia Sweeney

#98. Every senator needs to stand up and represent their constituents - not big business, not the ACLU, not activist groups, not political interests, but the American interests, the workers' interests.

Jeff Sessions

#99. I get called all kinds of things - an investigative comedian, a comedian activist - I've lost track of what my job title is.

Mark Thomas

#100. I feel like being an artist and being an activist are separate things; I know some people who feel very differently.

Oscar Isaac