Quotes About Change

She didn't put her finger to the wind; she became the wind.

Our current plight is not made inevitable by human nature. What once was could be again—in a new way.

We're also learning that the most dangerous time often comes after a victory.

Taking to the road—by which I mean letting the road take you—changed who I thought I was. The road is messy in the way that real life is messy. It leads us out of denial and into reality, out of theory and into practice, out of caution and into action, out of statistics and into stories—in short, out of our heads and into our hearts.

I recommend trying this kind of grassroots organizing for a week or a year, a month or a lifetime—working for whatever change you want to see in the world. Then one day you will be talking to a stranger who has no idea you played any part in the victory she or he is celebrating.

The things you regret sometimes turn out to be the things you celebrate. In other words: You learn from what you do wrong.

IF EVERYONE HAS A full circle of human qualities to complete, then progress lies in the direction we haven't been.

Altogether, I can't imagine technology replacing bookstores completely, any more than movies about a country replace going there.

To think about taking our place in nature instead of conquering it is a deep change in the way we see ourselves and the world. It means changing from binary and linear thinking to a cyclical paradigm that is a new declaration of interdependence.

Change seems recognizable only after it's happened, like putting one's foot down for a familiar stair—and it's not there.

Also India had taught me that change grows from the bottom, like a tree, and that caste or race can double or triple women's oppression.

There is power in proximity. Get close to the problem you feel drawn to. Change the narrative. Stay hopeful. Be willing to do uncomfortable things.

It's time to leave - there is so much out there to do and say and listen to.

In thirty years or so, the majority will no longer be European Americans; the first generation of mostly babies of color has already been born. This new diversity will give us a better understanding of the world and enrich our cultural choices, yet there are people whose sense of identity depends on the old hierarchy.

I don't think feminism can just be imitative or integrationist. By definition, it must transform. But in the short run, there are goals we agree on. And it's in the short run that we must act.

The dry tinder of inequality was everywhere, just waiting to be set on fire.

So I sat down and began to make notes about many trips, past and present, that left me amazed by what is, angered by what isn't, and hooked on what could be.

I always thought of my road life as temporary, assuming that one day I would grow up and settle down. Now I realized that for me, the road was permanent, and settling down was temporary. Traveling had created my nonroad life, not the other way around.

I confused growing up with settling down.

There are events that divide our life into before and after.

We're not having a revolution, but an evolution.

In retrospect, the second cause for delay makes less feminist sense: the long popularity of assertiveness training. Though most women needed to be more assertive (or even more aggressive, though that word was considered too controversial), many assertiveness courses taught women how to play the existing game, not how to change the rules.

It was the 1950s, and I confused growing up with settling down.

Campaign season is the only time of public debate about what we want for the future. It can change consciousness even more than who gets elected. In short, campaigns may be the closest thing we have to democracy itself.