Saul Alinsky Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Curiosity and irreverence go together. Curiosity cannot exist without the other. Curiosity asks, "Is this true?" "Just because this has always been the way, is the best or right way of life, the best or right religion, political or economic value, morality?" To the questioner, nothing is sacred. He detests dogma, defies any finite definition of morality, rebels against any repression of a free, open search of ideas no matter where they may lead. He is challenging, insulting, agitating, discrediting. He stirs unrest.

  Saul Alinsky

  Ideas, Economic Value, Political

  24 Copy quote

• Always remember the first rule of power tactics; power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

  Saul Alinsky

  Power, Thinking, Enemy

  Saul Alinsky (2016). “Thirteen Tactics for Realistic Radicals: from Rules for Radicals”, p.5, Vintage

  10 Copy quote

• Let the liberal turn to the course of action, the course of all radicals, and the amused look vanishes from the face of society as it snarls, “That’s radical!” Society has good reason to fear the radical. Every shaking advance of mankind toward equality and justice has come from the radical. He hits, he hurts, he is dangerous. Conservative interests know that while liberals are most adept at breaking their own necks with their tongues, radicals are most adept at breaking the necks of conservatives.

  Saul Alinsky

  Hurt, Justice, Tongue

  18 Copy quote

• The establishment can accept being screwed, but not being laughed at

  Saul Alinsky

  Accepting, Establishment, Laughed

  44 Copy quote

• From the moment an organizer enters a community, he lives, dreams, eats, breathes, sleeps only one thing, and that is to build the mass power base of what he calls the army.

  Saul Alinsky

  Dream, Sleep, Army

  31 Copy quote

• Lest we forget at least an over the shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins - or which is which), the very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom - Lucifer.

  Saul Alinsky

  Men, Firsts, Legends

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.9, Vintage

  54 Copy quote

• The thirteenth rule of radical tactics: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

  Saul Alinsky

  Target, Tactics, Radical

  19 Copy quote

• The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.

  Saul Alinsky

  Enemy, Reactions, Rules For Radicals

  Saul Alinsky (2016). “Thirteen Tactics for Realistic Radicals: from Rules for Radicals”, p.11, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself.

  Saul Alinsky

  Freedom, 4th Of July, Individuality

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.24, Vintage

  36 Copy quote

• The only people who become disillusioned are people who have illusions.

  Saul Alinsky

  People, Illusion, Disillusioned

  4 Copy quote

• Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.

  Saul Alinsky

  Change, Mean, Vacuums

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.21, Vintage

  52 Copy quote

• Change comes from power, and power comes from organization. In order to act, people must get together.

  Saul Alinsky

  Organization, Humanist, Rules For Radicals

  "Rules for Radicals: A Practical Primer for Realistic Radicals". Book by Saul Alinsky, p. 113, archive.org. 1971.

  11 Copy quote

• Organized religion has too often followed the road of other people's institutions. It has made adjustments, compromises, and surrenders to a materialistic civilization for the benefit of material security in spite of occasional twinges of conscience and moral protests. The result has been that today much of organized religion is materialistically solvent but spiritually bankrupt.

  Saul Alinsky

  Civilization, People, Religion

  7 Copy quote

• Power just goes to two poles — to those who've got money, and those who've got people.

  Saul Alinsky

  Money, Two, People

  "The Professional Radical: Conversations with Saul Alinsky".

  31 Copy quote

• The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away.

  Saul Alinsky

  Radical, Rules For Radicals, Written

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.3, Vintage

  15 Copy quote

• In a fight almost anything goes. It almost reaches the point where you stop to apologize if a chance blow lands above the belt.

  Saul Alinsky

  Fighting, Blow, Land

  Saul Alinsky (2016). “Thirteen Tactics for Realistic Radicals: from Rules for Radicals”, p.7, Vintage

  10 Copy quote

• Action comes from keeping the heat on. No politician can sit on a hot issue if you make it hot enough.

  Saul Alinsky

  Issues, Hot, Action

  19 Copy quote

• We must face the bitter fact that we have forsaken our great dream of a life of, for, and by the people; that the burning passions and ideals of the American dream lie congealed by cold cynicism. Great parts of the masses of our people no longer believe that they have a voice or a hand in shaping the destiny of this nation. They have not forsaken democracy because of any desire or positive action of their own; they have been driven down into the depths of a great despair born of frustration, hopelessness, and apathy. A democracy lacking in popular participation dies of paralysis.

  Saul Alinsky

  Dream, Lying, Believe

  19 Copy quote

• The people of America are red, white, black, yellow, and all the shades in between. Their eyes are blue, black, and brown, and all the shades in between. Their hair is straight, curly, kinky, and most of it in between. They are tall and short, slim and fat, athletic and anaemic, and most of them in between. They are the different peoples of the world becoming more and more the "in between." They are a people creating a new bridge of mankind in between the past of narrow nationalistic chauvinism and the horizon of a new mankind--a people of the world. Their face is the face of the future.

  Saul Alinsky

  Eye, Past, Bridges

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Reveille for Radicals”, p.3, Vintage

  38 Copy quote

• The threat is generally more terrifying than the thing itself.

  Saul Alinsky

  Threat

  14 Copy quote

• The end is what you want and the means is how you get it.

  Saul Alinsky

  Mean, Want, Ends

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.24, Vintage

  10 Copy quote

• The democratic ideal springs from the ideas of liberty, equality, majority rule through free elections, protection of the rights of minorities, and freedom to subscribe to multiple loyalties in matters of religion, economics, and politics rather than to a total loyalty to the state. The spirit of democracy is the idea of importance and worth in the individual, and faith in the kind of world where the individual can achieve as much of his potential as possible.

  Saul Alinsky

  Loyalty, Spring, Rights

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals”, p.24, Vintage

  19 Copy quote

• I prize my own independence too much. And philosophically, I could never accept any rigid dogma or ideology, whether it's Christianity or Marxism…The greatest crimes in history have been perpetrated by such religious and political and racial fanatics, from the persecutions of the Inquisition on down to Communist purges and Nazi genocide.

  Saul Alinsky

  Religious, Political, Independence

  9 Copy quote

• Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.

  Saul Alinsky

  Book, Enemy, Rules For Radicals

  8 Copy quote

• The only nonpartisan people are those who are dead.

  Saul Alinsky

  People

  Saul Alinsky (2010). “Reveille for Radicals”, p.20, Vintage

  10 Copy quote

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