Social Activists

"Did Elizabeth Fry, of England, neglect her family? No! After rearing her eight or ten children, she went forth and did the things that Howard did, and greater. See Dorothea Dix, and what a ministering angel she has been! Look at the licentiousness of our own city of Penn, and see how Myra Townsend went forth and established a reformatory house for her sisters; see how she gathered them there and improved their situations, and awakened in them a desire for a better life."

"It becomes man to speak modestly of his ability to act without her."

"I would urge that woman be placed in such a situation in society, by the recognition of her rights, and have such opportunities for growth and development, as shall raise her from this low, enervated, and paralyzed condition, to a full appreciation of the blessing of entire freedom of mind."

"When woman shall be properly trained, and her spiritual powers developed, she will find in entering the marriage union nothing necessarily degrading to her. The independence of the husband and wife should be equal, and the dependence reciprocal. But Oh! how different now!"

"There are many instances now in our city, where the wife suffers much from the power of the husband to claim all that she can earn with her own hands. In my intercourse with the poorer class of people, I have known cases of extreme cruelty from the hard earnings of the wife being thus robbed by the husband, and no redress at law."

"Woman was not wanting in courage in the early ages. In war and bloodshed this trait was often displayed. Grecian and Roman history have lauded and honored her in this character. English history records her courageous women too, for unhappily we have little but the records of war handed down to us."

"the opening of profitable employment to women in France is doing much for the enfranchisement of the sex."

"Let woman then go on, not asking favors, but claiming as right, the removal of all hindrances to her elevation in the scale of being; let her receive encouragement for the proper cultivation of all her powers, so that she may enter profitably into the active business of life; employing her own hands in ministering to her necessities, strengthening her physical being by proper exercise and observance of the laws of health. Let her not be ambitious to display a fair hand and to promenade the fashionable streets of our city, but rather, coveting earnestly the best gifts, let her strive to occupy such walks in society as will befit her true dignity in all the relations of life. No fear that she will then transcend the proper limits of female delicacy. True modesty will be as fully preserved in acting out those important vocations, as in the nursery or at the fireside ministering to man's self-indulgence. Then in the marriage union, the independence of the husband and wife will be equal, their dependence mutual, and their obligations reciprocal."

"As our President said, we have in our army such minds as Spencer, and Mill, and I would add Buckle, and many others; and they are diffusing light, intelligence and civilization, and advocating the right. We have women also. We have Frances Cobbe; whose name I speak with pride and rejoicing; and in the literary world we have Charlotte Bronte, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many others, who are consecrating their talents to the great cause of womanhood, and freedom, and right."

"New possibilities develop through taking action. We can't conjure strategy out of isolation;"

"STUDY HISTORY AND POLITICAL THEORY RELENTLESSLY. We do ourselves no favors by being ignorant of the past experiences and summations of those who came before us."

"The development from uprising to revolution is never linear or smooth. Ebb must follow surge, yielding ground temporarily in order to consolidate power for the next wave."

"what is certain is that the structural crises and inequalities that gave rise to the global uprisings in the first place will only intensify."

"Life runs much faster than our ability to record and interpret it."

"We need to build a multi-tendency alliance if we're going to win, that embraces reds, greens, anarchists, anti-oppression activists of all kinds."

"Most of us in the US don't understand populism or many other concepts relevant to political struggle. Even those of us who are active lag far behind much of the world in our grasp of theory-we don't recognize views as coherent lines, and therefore we're incapable of calling them by name, much less foreseeing their far-ranging implications. But we can't keep blithely disdaining the use of "jargon." These words may feel cumbersome and persnickety in our casual, 140-characters-or-less, news-o-tainment culture, but their precision allows us to conceptualize, identify, and decide to accept or reject ideological and political phenomena that could make all the difference to our eventual success or failure."

"We need to make land public, and collectively controlled by the people. The system wants us to be sick and dysfunctional; we need to take control of our health and not accept toxic food."

"Today there are ever-increasing numbers of people doing this, which is very encouraging. But if we are to find viable solutions, we must do more than describe symptoms and warn of dire consequences. We must get to the root of the problem: figure out how to end global capitalism and eliminate the class divisions that enable private wealth accumulation."

"Profiteers will never change through persuasion. Only by all of us stepping up to build a broad mass movement, with workers in the lead, can we become strong enough to challenge, defeat and overthrow the class currently in power."

"it's only when we can collectively provide for our own needs that we can break our dependency on the capitalist system and create an alternative to it that works."

"We need to take back the means of subsistence that they tore from us-for most of us, many generations ago. We need access to land, and to reconnect with the living world in mutually beneficial ways, re-learn how to live within (and preserve the health of) our bioregions."

"Because a capitalist economy compels perpetual growth, no reforms or adjustments can make it sustainable."

"Exposing capitalism's effects, such as global warming and pollution, is one crucial part of building a movement to transform society. That was my goal with these cartoons when I drew them during the years 2009-2012."

""women are mother’s of the nation”."

"Let’s remain patient and keep our eyes on the ball.”"

"Lillian Nkosazana Moremi Interview (September 2017)"

"Botswana: 'We Need to Educate Women!, ( August 2014) by Levi Mberego"

"There is always light at the end of the tunnel."

"Young people should continue to lead their own learning from the people they meet, the events they go to, and the books they read."

"“Your voice is important. Use it!”"

"self-empowerment is the best way to help ourselves find opportunities of growth and work"

"As youth, we should never give up on our dreams no matter how hard things may be."

"Identify a challenge in your area and see how best you can help."

"From Student To Teacher: How Lillian Moremi Shows Youth the Way (20 November 2020), By Young African Leaders Initiative"

"We are the change makers"

"All of us have to act responsibly."

"Young women need to invest in their personal development and we need to educate women especially in the rural areas who don't understand much about their rights."

"Nothing stops a bullet like a job."

"I never experienced such sudden change – as if no government existed before. Now our only hope is for the young generation to fill the gaps and reform the system, but that will only be possible with international support."

"So how do we improve as a people? How do we strive for excellence when, as a matter of fact, people get celebrated for being wack, uninspiring and unexceptional? How do we deliver?"

"We are a growing generation of zombies, we find it hard to truly express how we feel about anything"

"The fear of being called a bloody hater hangs like a garrotte around our neck. We don’t want to be choked so we nod and agree: “yes, you are a fantastic actress!” When in reality she is nothing close to being fantastic."

"My first introduction to the existence of haters was in rap music."

"Reason dictates that when you make a mistake, there’s always a bunch of people on the side-line who will get on your case and try as much as they can to put you in check."

"Now the word “hate” has gone beyond just a few neighbours who think little of you. With the help of social media and the revelation of everything under the sun, hate is the new middle name for anybody who breaks a sentence with the word."

"He didn’t want a life of spiritual mediocrity, he didn’t want mere worldly success, he wanted the heights of intimacy with Christ and service to the poor."

"Pier Giorgio is proof that it is also possible to be holy while living entirely with the world, having fun with friends, drinking a glass of wine, going to theater, at school … his living with the world, enjoying the beauties of the world; but that didn’t lessen the spiritual part of his life — on the contrary.And he had the exact same problems and concerns as so many young people today. He used to have difficulties with exams, which weighed down on him a lot. This is why many students identify themselves with him. He also had problems with his parents, who didn’t get along and who were about to separate. He also secretly loved a young woman that he decided to let go. His joyful faith and his freedom are also a great source of inspiration for youth. Pier Giorgio instilled the idea that faith is not something that limits you; on the contrary, it frees you; it gives you wings. He used to have an incredible freedom in his opinions, choices — in everything. He believed that freedom is the greatest gift that God gave to his creatures."

"Far too often movements revert to a position in which membership and joint political work are based on a necessarily similar history of oppression—but this is too much like identity politics. Instead, I am suggesting here that the process of movement building be rooted not in our shared history or identity but in our shared marginal relationship to dominant power that normalizes, legitimizes, and privileges."

"The divorce laws are unequal, practically encouraging immorality on the part of the husband, as it is not a ground for securing a divorce from him unless coupled with cruelty or desertion."

"That the negro mother had no control of her child seemed to Abolitionists a potent argument for emancipation. Today the English woman, if married, is not the legal parent of her child. The father is the parent and has the right to prescribe the child's education, religious training and medical attendance; he may take it away from the mother and may by will appoint a guardian without her consent. The position of a married woman is in many ways wretched: though her husband is supposed to support her, there is no legal machinery by which a woman can enforce this law... a man may disinherit his wife and leave her penniless with destitute children whom the law compels her to support."