Quotes from Saul D. Alinsky

This is not an ideological book except insofar as argument for change, rather than for the status quo, can be called an ideology; different people, in different places, in different situations and different times will construct their own solutions and symbols of salvation for those times.

The men who pile up the heaps of discussion and literature on the ethics of means and ends... are passionately committed to a mystical objectivity where passions are suspect. They assume a nonexistent situation where men dispassionately and with reason draw and devise means and ends as if studying a navigational chart on land.

Revolution by the Have-Nots has a way of inducing a moral revelation among the Haves. Revolution

There is no dispassionate objectivity. The revolutionary ideology is not confined to a specific limited formula. It is a series of general principles, rooted in Lincoln's May 19, 1856, statement: "Be not deceived. Revolutions do not go backward." THE

Most of us view the world not as it is but as we would like it to be. The preferred world can be seen any evening on television in the succession of programs where the good always wins—that is, until the late evening newscast, when suddenly we are plunged into the world as it is.* Political

In this world laws are written for the lofty aim of "the common good" and then acted out in life on the basis of the common greed.

Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people.

The setting for the drama of change has never varied. Mankind has been and is divided into three parts: the Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Have-a-Little, Want Mores. On

Mark Twain once put it, "The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference

Conflict is the essential core of a free and open society.

The pursuit of happiness is never-ending; happiness lies in the pursuit. Confronted

Since representatives of formal agencies judge leadership according to their own criteria, evaluate what is good or bad in the community according to their own standards, and understand life in the community only when interpreted according to their own code or standards-it is crystal clear that they don't know the meaning of indigenous leadership, let alone the identities of these natural leaders...

Those who, for whatever combination of reasons, encourage the opposite of reformation, become the unwitting allies of the far political right. Parts of the far left have gone so far in the political circle that they are now all but indistinguishable from the extreme right.

Process tells us how. Purpose tells us why. But in reality, it is academic to draw a line between them, they are part of a continuum. Process and purpose are so welded to each other that it is impossible to mark where one leaves off and the other begins, or which is which. The very process of democratic participation is for the purpose of organization rather than to rid the alleys of dirt. Process is really purpose.

They would like to see better housing, health, economic security, but they are not living in the rotten houses; it is not their children who are sick; it is not they who are working with the specter of unemployment hanging over their heads; they are not fighting their own fight.

in which man can have the chance to live by values that give meaning to life.

Whenever the word power is mentioned, somebody sooner or later will refer to the classical statement of Lord Acton and cite it as follows: "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." In fact the correct quotation is: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." We can't even read Acton's statement accurately, our minds are so confused by our conditioning.

No politician can sit on a hot issue if you make it hot enough. As

WHAT FOLLOWS IS for those who want to change the world from what it is to what they believe it should be. 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. In