I can promise you it has a great effect on the person who chooses to do it. It doesn't hurt anybody else. We will continue civil disobedience to fight for democracy and for human rights in Hong Kong. Explore Civil Disobedience Quotes by authors including John Lewis, Edward Snowden, and Al Gore at BrainyQuote. "16-Year-Old Activist Malala Yousafzai Steals The Show At NYC Awards Show" by Jocelyn Noveck, www.businessinsider.com. “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.23, Heron Dance Press, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Civil disobedience is not our problem. “Why We Can't Wait”, p.62, Beacon Press, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2011). If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. Improve yourself, find your inspiration, share with friends, Howard Zinn (1997). You have to earn it not by screaming, but by working hard, by believing in yourself, by proving yourself. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your Generally, it's nonviolent, as defined by Henry David Thoreau, Gandhi, and King. Civil disobedience is rebelling. That’s our problem. I honestly do not know if civil disobedience has any effect on the government. Follow AzQuotes on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. In 1999, I was in St. Louis with Martin Luther King III as we led protests against the state's failure to hire minority contractors for highway construction projects. Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. This obedience to God and disobedience to the State has, over and over again, happened throughout history. Our problem is civil obedience. Civil disobedience is a beautiful variant to signify growth, it is not discordance which spells death. I believe that Gandhi was correct. country, let men label you as they may. 1963, Mahatma Gandhi (2012). Non-violent civil disobedience is the only way to bring about change that allows people to enjoy the change and not get killed in the process. There was a belief after World War I that painting could be an act of civil revolt. What is satire if not a marriage of civil disobedience to a laugh track, a potent brew of derision and lack of respect that acts as a nettle sting on the thin skin of the humourless? As long as it's peaceful, of course. And the key there is in terms of civil disobedience. As people debate the scope of government power in regards to Covid-19 lockdowns, some are openly defying the law. Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt. We went at dawn on a summer day with over a thousand people and performed acts of civil disobedience. It is not always the same thing to be a good man and a good citizen. Desmond Tutu from Jan 22, 2014, Letter from Birmingham Jail, Alabama, 16 Apr. One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. BrainyQuote has been providing inspirational quotes since 2001 to our worldwide community. I'm about it. You cannot shirk this and be a man. "Sometimes to do the right thing, you have to break a law. Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it. And the key there is in terms of civil disobedience. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe. There were three Selma-to-Montgomery marches in March 1965, and Rosa Parks had missed the first one. The obedient must be slaves. “Why We Can't Wait”, p.60, Beacon Press. It's painting as insurgency. “The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy”, p.383, Seven Stories Press, "Letter from Birmingham Jail," 16 Apr. Join Kwize to pick, add, edit or explain your favorite Civil Disobedience quotes. Yes, what has happened is we have moved from responding to these terrorist attacks as acts of civil disobedience to getting to the point after September 11 that we said, no, this is not just civil disobedience, this is an act of war. I'm also about civil disobedience. Women have to risk civil disobedience for their rights. “The Moral and Political Writings of Mahatma Gandhi: Non-Violent Resistance and Social Transformation”, Clarendon Press, Arundhati Roy (2004). As a result of his writings and personal witness, we are the heirs of a legacy of creative protest. Thoreau points out clearly that civil disobedience gets its moral authority by the willingness to suffer the penalties from disobeying a law, even if you think that law is unjust. Our problem is that people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of leaders…and millions have been killed because of this obedience…Our problem is that people are obedient allover the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty. Protest beyond the law is not a departure from democracy; it is absolutely essential to it. “I heartily accept the motto, ‘That government is best which governs least’; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Our problem is civil obedience. There are good laws and there are occasionally bad laws, and it conforms to the highest traditions of a free society to offer resistance to bad laws, and to disobey them. It's not so much about the New Museum on the Bowery, but the idea of challenging museums as projections of cultural authority. Disobedience without civility, discipline, discrimination, non-violence, is certain destruction. Albert Einstein (2010). If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law. If Snowden really claims that his actions amounted to genuine civil disobedience, he should go to some English language bookstore in Moscow and get a copy of Henry David Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience'. Civil disobedience is, in fact, a conservative idea, a few steps short of overt rebellion. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves… (and) the grand thieves are running the country. And immoral. “Crises of the Republic: Lying in Politics; Civil Disobedience; On Violence; Thoughts on Politics and Revolution”, p.85, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive. “The Ultimate Quotable Einstein”, p.423, Princeton University Press, FaceBook post by I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councilor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice.