Reveille for Radicals Quotes

“Life is an adventure of passion, risk, danger, laughter, beauty, love; a burning curiosity to go with the action to see what it is all about, to go search for a pattern of meaning, to burn one's bridges because you're never going to go back anyway, and to live to the end.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“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, Reveille for Radicals

“You regard yourself as tolerant, and in that one adjective you most fittingly describe yourself. You really don’t like people you tolerate them. You are very tolerant, MR. BUT.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“I suggested that we might buy one hundred seats for one of Rochester's symphony concerts. We would select a concert in which the music would be relatively quiet. The hundred blacks who would be given tickets would first be treated to a three-hour pre-concert dinner in the community, in which they would be fed nothing but baked beans, and lots of them; them the people would go to the symphony hall--with obvious consequences.”
― Saul Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“The American dream was wrought in the fire of the passionate hearts and minds of America’s radicals. It could never have been conceived in the cold, clammy tomb of conservativism. The American radical descends from those who begot, nurtured, fought, and suffered for every idea that moved men’s feet forward in the march of civilization — the radicals of the world. The hopes and aspirations of the radicals of the world found fruit in the American Revolution. Here in the New World man would find the new life, the new order; even our money carried this message, NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM.

The history of America is the story of America’s radicals. It is a saga of revolution, battle, words on paper setting hearts on fire, ferment and turmoil; it is the story of every rallying cry of the American people. It is the story of the American Revolution, of the public schools, of the battle for free land, of emancipation, of the unceasing struggle for the ever increasing liberation of mankind.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“People living under a selfish system become adjusted to it in order to survive. They therefore naturally acquire a personal selfishness and just as naturally assume this same selfishness exists in all others, including the organizer. This ingrained suspicion must be destroyed; its destruction of it is an essential part of the fight for a people’s world. Not only must the dignity of the individual be restored but in that process man must begin to see the good in other men. He cannot see the good in others unless he has some of it within himself.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“Native or indigenous leadership is of fundamental importance in the attempt to build a People’s Organization, for without the support and co-operative efforts of native leaders any such venture is doomed to failure from the very beginning.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“Jobs, higher wages, economic security, housing, and health are some of the important things in life; and they are all controversial.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“Crime can properly be viewed only as one facet of a problem of general social disorganization.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“The actual projection of a completely particularized program by a few persons is a highly dictatorial action.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“We know from all about us that the democratic way of life is the most efficient instrument that man can use to cut through the barriers between him and his hopes for the future.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“The blinders of straight trade unionism focus all of the worker’s attention upon the hourly pay increase and prevent his seeing what happens to that money in actual life.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“They believe that Lincoln’s statement that a nation cannot exist half-free and half-slave is applicable to the entire world and includes economic as well as political freedom.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“while a conservative wishes to conserve the status quo, liberals ask for change and radicals fight for change.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“In the actual history of mankind we find few whose thoughts and actions place them even to a microscopic degree beyond the midpoint of the spectrum.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“The American radical will fight privilege and power, whether it be inherited or acquired by any small group, whether it be political or financial or organized creed.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“The complete man is one who is making a definite contribution to the general social welfare and who is a vital part of that community of interests, values, and purposes that makes life and people meaningful.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“In short, the American radical, by his individual actions, may appear to be the epitome of inconsistency, but when judged on the basis of his ideals, philosophy, and objectives, he is a living definition of consistency.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“The radical believes that all peoples should have a high standard of food, housing, and health.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“For the radical the bell tolls unceasingly and every man’s struggle is his fight.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“There were those few, and there will be more, who really liked people, loved people—all people. They were the human torches setting aflame the hearts of men so that they passionately fought for the rights of their fellow men, all men. They were hated, feared, and branded as radicals. They wore the epithet of radical as a badge of honor.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“Objectivity, like the claim that one is nonpartisan or reasonable, is usually a defensive posture used by those who fear involvement in the passions, partisanships, conflicts, and changes that make up life; they fear life.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“The pillars of the past had become tombstones and those which survived were suspect and challenged.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“Politically we feel alienated, rejected, and hopeless. The chasm between the people and their political representatives has widened to a terrifying degree. In a political vacuum we become increasingly vulnerable to a seizure from the far right. We know that the Snake is there but we are as paralyzed as the Rabbit. People are not rabbits, and America must shake off this nightmare and awake again. The middle classes must be organized for action, for claiming their rights and powers of citizenship in a free society. The organization must be committed to the values of a free and open society. The middle classes must begin to participate as citizens for those ideals which give meaning and purpose to life.

Logic and faith go together as the opposite sides of the same shield. We know by our intelligence the greatness and desirability of a free and open society over all other alternatives. Logic tells us, "We'll believe it when we see it." But there is also the converse, faith. Faith, or belief in the people, tells us, "We'll see it when we believe it."”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“Senility is a relinquishment of life as it is in the here and now and the taking of refuge into the security and familiarity of the past. When life becomes too confusing, too complex, too strange, too much, then you turn away.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“In the world as it is, man moves primarily because of self-interest.

In the world as it is, the right things are usually done for the wrong reasons, and vice versa.

In the world as it is, constructive actions have been reactions to a threat.

In the world as it is, a value judgment is rarely, if ever, made on the basis of what is best. Life does not accord us this luxury. Decisions are made on the criteria of alternatives.

In the world as it is, "compromise" is not an ugly but a noble word. If the whole free way of life could be summed up in one word it would be "compromise." A free way of life is a constant conflict punctuated by compromises which then serve as a jumping-off point for further conflict, more compromises, more conflict, in the never-ending struggle toward achieving man's highest goals.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“The tragedy of the young generation's "radicals" is that they dogmatically refuse to begin with the world as it is. But the only world we have is the world as it is, and we have to begin with that.

Any social changer, throughout history, has always known that you begin from where you are. Change can only be effected through power, and power means organization. Organization can be built only around issues which are specific, immediate, and realizable.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“The days of closed ethical systems are gone. The peoples of the world must live together, and the world is shrinking by the hour. Living together means that the multiple ethical systems and values around the earth must be synthesized into certain universals acceptable to the people of the world.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“The current American scene can be lamented for its violence, crime, and chaos. To me there is less violence today than there was in the period that saw lynchings, murder of labor organizers, mobster rule of the cities in the Prohibition period, the Memorial Day Massacre by Chicago's police in the late 1930's, and the sinister everyday violence of whites against blacks. We dare to talk about the violence of the ghetto riots, which mainly consist of an assault against property, when for these hundreds of years we have daily, hourly, visited upon the blacks a violence against human spirit, a degradation and denial reminiscent of Chinese torture. What makes it even worse is our inordinate hypocrisy in posing as protagonists of freedom, equality, and fraternity while denouncing totalitarian racist butchers. Phony self-righteousness makes us grotesque.

What many see as chaos and disorder today are to me the boiling over of the human spirit in a demand for direction and purpose to give meaning to life and carry us toward the goals of freedom, equality, economic security, opportunity, justice, and peace.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“Today there is a great emphasis among blacks on identity: black culture, black history, and pride of race--"Black is beautiful." The importance of achieving the objective of a black sense of identity cannot be understated. It is essential and of prime significance. It must be achieved. What concerns me deeply is that identity without power is still a second-class identity.”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals