Direct Action Quotes:

In no way have we contemplated the intervention of the army in tasks that belong to police at the different levels of government. What is contemplated .. is support from the army in these tasks but not in direct actions that correspond to municipal, state and federal police.

- Ruben Aguilar

topic: Army, Direct Action, Government

For the child whose impulsiveness is indulged, who retains his primitive-discharge mechanisms, is not only an ill-behaved child but a child whose intellectual development is slowed down. No matter how well he is endowed intellectually, if direct action and immediate gratification are the guiding principles of his behavior, there will be less incentive to develop the higher mental processes, to reason, to employ the imagination creatively. . . .

- Selma Fraiberg

topic: Children, Guiding Principles, Direct Action, Intellectual Development, Immediate Gratification

Marches work, rallies work, civil disobedience works, direct action works, voting works, writing letters works, speaking to churches and schools works, rioting works.

- Cleve Jones

source: Source: www.motherjones.com

topic: Writing, School, Direct Action, Rioting, School Work

I believe it's time for direct action on climate change, standing together as ordinary Australians to take control of our shared future.

- David Pocock

topic: Change, Believe, Direct Action, Standing Together

Each of us contributes our own piece to the whole, each in our own way, each in our own time with the gifts and talents that are ours. You ask about possible vehicles for change: question, stand, speak, act. Engage in unruly behavior. Disturb the status quo. Take direct action. Commit civil disobedience. Make art. Build community. Dance. Sing. Farm. Cook. Create something beautiful and then give it away. Find your own monkey wrench and use it with the force of love. Sharpen your pencil. Vote.

- Terry Tempest Williams

source: Source: therumpus.net

topic: Beautiful, Art, Direct Action, Gifts And Talents, Wrenches

Actually, we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. We bring it out in the open, where it can be seen and dealt with. Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with an its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Martin Luther King (Jr.) (1964). “Why we can't wait”

topic: Covered Up, Direct Action, Medicine

For years now I have heard the word "wait." It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This "wait" has almost always meant "never."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.90, Beacon Press

topic: Inspirational, Years, Direct Action, Jurists, Justice Denied

In any nonviolent campaign there are four basic steps: collection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self-purification; and direct action.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.57, Beacon Press

topic: Self, Direct Action, Campaigns

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly I have never yet engaged in a direct action movement that was 'well timed,' according to the timetable of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word 'Wait!' It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This 'wait' has almost always meant 'never.' We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that 'justice too long delayed is justice denied.'

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail’, www.theatlantic.com. April 16, 1963.

topic: Years, Painful Experiences, Direct Action, Jurists, Justice Denied

The purpose of direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.89, Beacon Press

topic: Inspirational, Doors, Direct Action, Creative Tension

Non-violent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored... I am not afraid of the word tension. I have earnestly worked and preached against violent tension, and there is a type of constructive tension that is necessary for growth.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.88, Beacon Press

topic: Direct Action, Issues, Creative, Creative Tension, Non Violent

We had no alternative except that of preparing for direct action, whereby we would present our very bodies as a means of laying our case before the conscience of the local and national community.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). “Why We Can't Wait”, p.57, Beacon Press

topic: Inspirational, Mean, Direct Action, National Community

Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has consistently refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

source: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2013). “The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.: "I Have a Dream" and Other Great Writings”, p.88, Beacon Press

topic: Inspirational, Direct Action, Issues, Creative Tension

Education without direction is a one-sided social value. Direct action without education is a meaningless expression of pure energy.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

topic: Direct Action, Social Values, Expression

The Virgin filled so enormous a space in the life and thought of the time that one stands now helpless before the mass of testimony to her direct action and constant presence in every moment and form of the illusion which men thought they thought their existence.

- Henry Adams

source: Henry Adams (1986). “Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres”, p.237, Penguin

topic: Men, Direct Action, Space

Cryptography is the ultimate form of non-violent direct action.

- Julian Assange

source: "Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet". Book by Julian Assange, November 2012.

topic: Direct Action, Cryptography, Violent

Even if it doesn't work, there is something healthy and invigorating about direct action

- Henry Miller

source: Henry Miller (1952). “Remember to Remember”

topic: Funny, Humor, Direct Action, Invigorating

There is one central characteristic of anarchism on the matter of means, and that central principle is a principle of direct action - of not going through the forms that the society offers you, of representative government, of voting, of legislation, but directly taking power.

- Howard Zinn

source: "Rebels Against Tyranny". Interview with Ziga Vodovnik, www.counterpunch.org. May 12, 2008.

topic: Mean, Direct Action, Government, Representatives, Representative Government

Each situation has to be evaluated separately, for all are different. In general, I believe in non-violent direct action, which involve organizing large numbers of people, whereas too often violent uprisings are the product of a small group. If enough people are organized, violence can be minimized in bringing about social change.

- Howard Zinn

source: ZNet forum reply, May 26, 1999.

topic: Believe, Direct Action, Uprising, Small Groups, Non Violent

If the government or the parties won't address our needs, we will. It's about direct action, even civil disobedience.

- Edward Snowden

source: Source: www.thenation.com

topic: Party, Direct Action, Government

We are a representative democracy. But how did we get there? We got there through direct action. And that's enshrined in our Constitution and in our values.

- Edward Snowden

source: Source: www.thenation.com

topic: Direct Action, Democracy, Constitution

Direct action against the authority in the shop, direct action against the authority of the law, direct action against the invasive, meddlesome authority of our moral code, is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism. Will it not lead to a revolution? Indeed, it will. No real social change has ever come without a revolution. People are either not familiar with their history, or they have not yet learned that revolution is but thought carried into action.

- Emma Goldman

source: Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism and Other Essays”, p.44, Sheba Blake Publishing

topic: Real, Law, Direct Action, Meddlesome, Moral Code

Direct action is the logical, consistent method of Anarchism.

- Emma Goldman

source: Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism and Other Essays”, p.44, Sheba Blake Publishing

topic: Direct Action, Logical, Method

Anarchism...stands for direct action, the open defiance of, and resistance to, all laws and restrictions, economic, social, and moral.

- Emma Goldman

topic: Law, Direct Action, Anarchy

For some of the large indignities of life, the best remedy is direct action. For the small indignities, the best remedy is a Charlie Chaplin movie. The hard part is knowing the difference.

- Carol Tavris

source: Carol Tavris (1989). “Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion”, p.293, Simon and Schuster

topic: Direct Action, Differences, Knowing