Abbie Hoffman quotes
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“Today is the first day of the rest of your life.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a C.I.A. that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : Tikkun magazine, July-August 1989.
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“Life actors never rehearse and need no script. A life actor uses only what is available, nothing more, nothing less.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“The best way to educate oneself is to become part of the revolution.”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : Abbie Hoffman (2009). “Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a Five-Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial”, p.184, Da Capo Press
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“Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : Abbie Hoffman (2009). “Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a Five-Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial”, Da Capo Press
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“There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power structure as a nobody, giving it your all, and winning!”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : "Soon to be a Major Motion Picture". Book by Abbie Hoffman, p. 297, 1980.
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“The key to organizing an alternative society is to organize people around what they can do, and more importantly, what they want to do.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“Peace is a very complicated concept. When the lion gobbles up the lamb and wipes his lips, then there's peace. Well, I ain't for that peace at all.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“The '60s are gone, dope will never be as cheap, sex never as free, and the rock and roll never as great.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“My critique of democracy begins and ends with this point. Kids must be educated to disrespect authority or else democracy is a farce.”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : "Soon to be a Major Motion Picture". Book by Abbie Hoffman, p. 64, 1980.
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“Every rock or molotov cocktail thrown should make a very obvious political point. Random violence produces random propaganda results. Why waste even a rock?”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“The only way to support a revolution is to make your own.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit.”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : "Soon to be a Major Motion Picture". Book by Abbie Hoffman, p. 297, 1980.
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“To steal from a brother or sister is evil. To not steal from the institutions that are the pillars of the Pig Empire is equally immoral.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars.”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : Quoted in James Charlton, The Military Quotation Book (1990)
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“Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger.”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : Quoted in N.Y. Times, 20 Apr. 1989.
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“The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“Action is the only reality; not only reality, but morality as well.”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : Abbie Hoffman (2009). “Revolution for the Hell of It: The Book That Earned Abbie Hoffman a Five-Year Prison Term at the Chicago Conspiracy Trial”, p.9, Da Capo Press
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“Avoid all needle drugs, the only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon.”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.
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“Once you get the right image the details aren't that important.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“Hep is a very dangerous disease that can cause a number of permanent conditions, including death, which is extremely permanent.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“Usually when you ask somebody in college why they are there, they'll tell you it's to get an education. The truth of it is, they are there to get the degree so that they can get ahead in the rat race. Too many college radicals are two-timing punks. The only reason you should be in college is to destroy it.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“Expedience, not justice, is the rule of contemporary American law.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“I was probably the only revolutionary referred to as cute.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“Never impose your language on people you wish to reach.”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : Abbie Hoffman (1968). “Revolution for the hell of it”
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“A modern revolutionary group heads for the television station.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“In this state, dig it, you get twenty years for sale of dope to a minor. You only get five to ten for manslaughter. So like, the thing is, if you're selling to a kid and cops come, shoot the kid real quick!”
-- Abbie HoffmanSource : "Chicago". Record on the spoken word album "Wake Up America!", 1971.
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“Smoking dope and hanging up Che's picture is no more a commitment than drinking milk and collecting postage stamps.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“Understand that legal and illegal are political, and often arbitrary, categorizations; use and abuse are medical, or clinical, distinctions.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power structure as a nobody, giving it your all, and winning. I think I've learned that lesson twice now. The essence of successful revolution, be it for an individual, a community of individuals, or a nation, depends on accepting that challenge.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“I just want to do what has to be done so much. I'll never understand why everyone else doesn't feel this way.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“It's going to be a combination Scopes trial, revolution in the streets, Woodstock Festival and People's Park, all rolled into one.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“Structure is more important than content in the transmission of information.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“Smoking dope and hanging up Che's picture is no more a commitment than drinking milk and collecting postage stamps. A revolution in consciousness is an empty high without a revolution in the distribution of power. We are not interested in the greening of Amerika except for the grass that will cover its grave.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“When decorum is repression, the only dignity free men have is to speak out.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“Nostalgia is a form of depression both for a society and an individual.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“Wouldn't you want to be indicted by the govenment for a high crime? It's a great thrill. It's an honor. It's a compliment. It's fun. I'm enjoying every minute of it!”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“What if when they called a war, no one went?”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“The idea that media is there to educate us, or to inform us, is ridiculous because that's about tenth or eleventh on their list.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“..you just get stoned, get the ideas in your head and then do 'em. And don't bullshit. I mean that's the thing about doin' that guerrilla theatre. You be prepared to die to prove your point.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“If you don't have sex and you don't do drugs, your rock 'n' roll better be awfully good.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“Random political acts produce random political results. Why waste even a rock?”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“I think the greatest legacy of the 1960s was the general feeling that not only can you fight the powers that be, but you can win.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“The only reason you should be in college is to destroy it.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“It is always the young that make the change. You don't get these ideas when you're middle-aged. Young people have daring, creativity, imagination and personal computers. Above all, what you have as young people that's vitally needed to make social change, is impatience. You want it to happen now. There have to be enough people that say, ‘We want it now, in our lifetime.’ This is your moment. This is your opportunity. Be adventurists in the sense of being bold and daring. Be opportunists and seize this opportunity, this moment in history, to go out and save our country. It's your turn now.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“It's too late. We can't win, they've gotten too powerful.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“I think we are constantly faced with the same decision. The decision to be blindly obedient to authority versus the decision to try and change things by fighting the powers that be is always, throughout history, the only decision.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
“It's embarrassing ... you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on the Best Seller's List.”
-- Abbie Hoffman -
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“The first duty of a revolutionist is to get away with it. The second duty is to eat breakfast. I ain't going.”
-- Abbie Hoffman
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