8 Cesar Chavez Quotes on Social change

Cesar Chavez quotes on social change

18. What do we want the Church to do? We don't ask for more cathedrals. We don't ask for bigger churches of fine gifts. We ask for its presence with us, beside us, as Christ among us. We ask the Church to sacrifice with the people for social change, for justice, and for love of brother. We don't ask for words. We ask for deeds. We don't ask for paternalism. We ask for servanthood.

24. Today, the growers are like a punch-drunk old boxer who doesn't know he's past his prime. The times are changing. The political and social environment has changed. The chickens are coming home to roost - and the time to account for past sins is approaching.

25. These trends are part of the forces of history that cannot be stopped. No person and no organization can resist them for very long. They are inevitable. Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot uneducate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore. Our opponents must understand that it's not just a union we have built. Unions, like other institutions, can come and go. But we're more than an institution. For nearly 20 years, our union has been on the cutting edge of a people's cause - and you cannot do away with an entire people; you cannot stamp out a people's cause.

67. It takes a lot of punishment to be able to do anything to change the social order.

71. My motivation to change these injustices came from my personal life : from watching what my mother and father went through when I was growing up; from what we experienced as migrant farm workers in California.

119. There is no turning back. We are winning because ours is a revolution of the mind and the heart.

151. When you have people together that believe in something very strongly, whether it be politics, unions or religion - things happen.

154. You know, if people are not pacifists, it's not their fault. It's because society puts them in that spot. You've got to change it. You don't just change a man - you've got to change his environment as you do it.