American - Activist | January 30, 1909 - June 12, 1972
History is a relay of revolutions.
Saul Alinsky
HistoryRelayRevolutions
Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life.
LifeFatherMotherTimePolitics
Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and chance the future.
ChangeAttitudeFuturePastPeople
Everybody owned stock in the Capone mob; in a way, he was a public benefactor. I remember one time when he arrived at his box seat in Dyche Stadium for a Northwestern football game on Boy Scout Day, and 8,000 scouts got up in the stands and screamed in cadence, 'Yea, yea, Big Al. Yea, yea, Big Al.'
TimeDayFootballGameRememberWay
A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
LongDragTooBecomesTactic
Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
PowerYouEnemyOnlyThinks
The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
MoreThreatThanTerrifyingThing
Mankind has been and is divided into three parts: the Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Have-a-Little, Want Mores.
ThreeWantDividedMankindBeen
The Capone gang was actually a public utility; it supplied what the people wanted and demanded.
PeopleGangUtilityWantedPublic
The organizer dedicated to changing the life of a particular community must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community.
LifeCommunityPeopleFirstChanging
Radicals must be resilient, adaptable to shifting political circumstances, and sensitive enough to the process of action and reaction to avoid being trapped by their own tactics and forced to travel a road not of their choosing. In short, radicals must have a degree of control over the flow of events.
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My only fixed truth is a belief in people: a conviction that if people have the opportunity to act freely and the power to control their own destinies, they'll generally reach the right decisions.
OpportunityTruthPowerPeopleReach
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