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Political progress45 quotes
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. — Karl Marx · 1845Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. — James Madison · 1788If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. — Frederick Douglass · 1857I was born by the river
In a little tent
And just like the river
I've been runnin' ever since
It's been a long, a long time comin'
But I know a change gon' come. — Sam Cooke · 1964The man who is right is a majority. He who has God and conscience on his side, has a majority against the universe. Though he does not represent the present state, he represents the future state. If he does not represent what we are, he represents what we ought to be. — Frederick Douglass · 1852All 45 quotes →Progress23 quotes
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. — Karl Marx · 1845Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. — James Madison · 1788If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. — Frederick Douglass · 1857Come Senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall. — Bob Dylan · 1963Justice is love on legs, spilling over into the public sphere. — Cornel West · 2009All 23 quotes →Politics15 quotes
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857"Wait" has almost always meant "Never." — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. — Abraham Lincoln · 1838A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past. — Fidel Castro · 1961I have been forty years a slave and forty years free, and would be here forty years more to have equal rights for all. — Sojourner Truth · 1867Revolution do not stand still. — Rosa Luxemburg · 1918All 15 quotes →Social progress5 quotes
If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. — Frederick Douglass · 1857I was born by the river
In a little tent
And just like the river
I've been runnin' ever since
It's been a long, a long time comin'
But I know a change gon' come. — Sam Cooke · 1964"Wait" has almost always meant "Never." — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. — Barack Obama · 1965Maybe you can't override prejudice overnight, but the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, ninety-odd years ago. I believe in gradualism. I also believe that ninety-odd years is pretty gradual. — Thurgood Marshall · 1987Activism4 quotes
If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. — Frederick Douglass · 1857I have been forty years a slave and forty years free, and would be here forty years more to have equal rights for all. — Sojourner Truth · 1867The best way to get inside city hall is to make noise on the street. — Bhairavi Desai · 2011Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don't yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it's actually going to be possible. — Angela Davis · 2014Civil rights4 quotes
I was born by the river
In a little tent
And just like the river
I've been runnin' ever since
It's been a long, a long time comin'
But I know a change gon' come. — Sam Cooke · 1964Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy tonight, I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1968"Wait" has almost always meant "Never." — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963Maybe you can't override prejudice overnight, but the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, ninety-odd years ago. I believe in gradualism. I also believe that ninety-odd years is pretty gradual. — Thurgood Marshall · 1987Political theory4 quotes
Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. — James Madison · 1788If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers. — Calvin Coolidge · 1926Finality, Sir, is not the language of politics. — Benjamin Disraeli · 1859Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights—then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward; that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1945Revolution4 quotes
The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it. — Karl Marx · 1845A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past. — Fidel Castro · 1961Revolution do not stand still. — Rosa Luxemburg · 1918Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. — John F. Kennedy · 1977Nature of progress3 quotes
The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. — Barack Obama · 1965All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days, nor in the life of this Administration, nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin. — John F. Kennedy · 1961I'll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again — The Who · 1971American politics2 quotes
"We, the people." It is a very eloquent beginning. But when that document was completed on the seventeenth of September in 1787 I was not included in that "We, the people." I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision, I have finally been included in "We, the people." — Barbara Jordan · 1974Maybe you can't override prejudice overnight, but the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863, ninety-odd years ago. I believe in gradualism. I also believe that ninety-odd years is pretty gradual. — Thurgood Marshall · 1987Democracy2 quotes
In a democratic society like ours, relief must come through an aroused popular conscience that sears the conscience of the people's representatives. — Felix Frankfurter · 1962It is my firm conviction that the civilized world is tending toward republicanism, or government by the people through their chosen representatives, and that our own great Republic is destined to be the guiding star to all others. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1873Equality2 quotes
If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers. — Calvin Coolidge · 1926I have been forty years a slave and forty years free, and would be here forty years more to have equal rights for all. — Sojourner Truth · 1867Hope2 quotes
Hope has never trickled down. It has always sprung up. — Studs Terkel · 2003History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave.
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme. — Seamus Heaney · 1990Justice2 quotes
Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. — James Madison · 1788Justice is love on legs, spilling over into the public sphere. — Cornel West · 2009Protest2 quotes
There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. — Abraham Lincoln · 1838We are here not because we are law-breakers. We are here in our efforts to become law-makers. — Emmeline Pankhurst · 1914Theory of progress2 quotes
In a democratic society like ours, relief must come through an aroused popular conscience that sears the conscience of the people's representatives. — Felix Frankfurter · 1962Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights—then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward. The great fact to remember is that the trend of civilization itself is forever upward; that a line drawn through the middle of the peaks and the valleys of the centuries always has an upward trend. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1945America and the world1 quote
It is my firm conviction that the civilized world is tending toward republicanism, or government by the people through their chosen representatives, and that our own great Republic is destined to be the guiding star to all others. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1873American Founding1 quote
If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers. — Calvin Coolidge · 1926Change1 quote
We are the change that we seek. — Barack Obama · 2008Changing with the times1 quote
It is the glory of each generation to make its own precedents. — Belva Lockwood · 1877City politics1 quote
The best way to get inside city hall is to make noise on the street. — Bhairavi Desai · 2011Courage1 quote
You can't spend your whole life criticizing something and then when you have the chance to do it better refuse to go near it. — Vaclav Havel · 2007Disillusionment1 quote
I'll tip my hat to the new Constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around
Pick up my guitar and play
Just like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again — The Who · 1971Equal rights1 quote
I have been forty years a slave and forty years free, and would be here forty years more to have equal rights for all. — Sojourner Truth · 1867Fascism1 quote
If you had asked me why I had joined the militia I should have answered: "To fight against Fascism," and if you had asked me what I was fighting for, I should have answered: "Common decency." — George Orwell · 1938Fate1 quote
We may not have chosen the time, but the time has chosen us. — John Lewis · 2006Fighting for justice1 quote
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857Government1 quote
Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit. — James Madison · 1788Love as action1 quote
Justice is love on legs, spilling over into the public sphere. — Cornel West · 2009Past and future1 quote
A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past. — Fidel Castro · 1961