Quotes About Being An Activist

#1. I hadn't planned on being an activist.

Eric Schlosser

#2. The trouble with being an activist is you end up like Eve and you get kicked out of the Garden of Eden. You know, Eve was the first person who thought for herself. And she still gets a bad rap. I named my daughter after her.

Susan Sarandon

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

Oscar Isaac

#4. 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

#5. 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

#6. There is a large gap between being an activist out of the idealism that comes from books, conversations, the fire of youth and being one because you have lived through the depredations that life has thrown at you.

Neel Mukherjee

#7. 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

#8. There's something nice about being able to go to sleep at night saying "You know, tomorrow I'm gonna get up and I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do that ... " I think that being an activist on this planet is a privilege and a pleasure.

Assata Shakur

#9. Being an activist is about getting things done. It's not about standing around shaking your fist in anger.

Christine Quinn

#10. Never be discouraged from being an activist because people tell you that you'll not succeed. You have already succeeded if you're out there representing truth or justice or compassion or fairness or love.

Doris "Granny D" Haddock

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

William Baldwin

#12. 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

#13. I denounce the do-gooders, the feel-gooders, the "activist clubs," and anyone else who makes people feel like the problem is being taken care of. Trust me. The problem is not being taken care of.

Blake Nelson

#14. It never hurts to be involved in any political or activist organization. I can never see how participation would be a bad thing. The key is being true to what you participate with and who.

John Cusack

#15. If I wanted to take a more activist or journalistic slant in work, I should probably just go be an activist or a journalist. But I'm happy being a comedian.

John Oliver

#16. For decades, activist shareholders were an entertaining, but largely ignored, Wall Street sideshow. Disgruntled investors would attend annual meetings to harangue executives, criticize strategies - and protest that their complaints were being ignored.

Charles Duhigg

#17. 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

#18. 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

#19. 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

#20. 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

#21. 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

#22. My life is about being a civil rights activist. That's my life. Whoever you are, everyone, we either have civil rights or we don't. It's for everyone.

Pauley Perrette

#23. Making my work more visual is something I am increasingly excited about. I am hopeful that it will broaden access to some of the ideas being engaged in activist and scholarly communities of which I am part.

Dean Spade

#24. I have been a lifelong community activist and frankly did not dream of being in public office.

Karen Bass

#25. I think it's the responsibility of every human being, not just those who wear the identity of poet, activist, voter, religious person ... it's the responsibility of every person. Our responsibility is to use our intelligence as clearly and coherently as we possibly can.

John Trudell

#26. Being outraged about two men or two women, it requires absolutely no work on the ground. So you can be outraged and you can be an armchair activist, engage in nothing and just simply get on the microphone and say, "I don't believe in X, Y, and Z, and it's terrible," and you can call them names.

Otis Moss III

#27. You have to draw lines between being a journalist and an activist.

Michael Pollan

#28. Strength of character comes from being hit by stray verbal stones, while protecting discarded ciphers in the snow.

Shannon L. Alder

#29. 'The Red' is the first book in a trilogy that gained a big following as a self-published e-book, and is now out in paper from Saga. It introduces us to reluctant hero Shelley, a former anti-war activist who chooses to join the military rather than serve jail time after being arrested at a protest.

Annalee Newitz

#30. I had always been interested in politics. I had assumed, for a variety of - well, for two reasons, being Jewish and being gay back in the late '50s, early '60s - that I would never be elected or anything, but I would participate as an activist.

Barney Frank

#31. The things that are important to me - being a mother, a businesswoman, an activist - are all things that were borne out of great passion.

Elizabeth Taylor

#32. I'm not an activist per se, but I have strong feelings about things. People can jump on celebrities for being ill-informed or naive, but I've got a right to say what I believe.

Ed Harris

#33. The primary thing I should do, apart from being a good husband, brother, son, and friend, is to be a citizen activist. But I'm afraid it takes away from the writing. Not that anything depends on whether I put an essay in 'The Nation' or not. But you want to participate.

Tony Kushner