A lot of people think of political activism as some grim duty, and I think we do have an obligation to be… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“I wonder sometimes what would happen if victory was imagined not just as the elimination of evil but the establishment of good...” — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“Violence is the power of the state; imagination and non-violence the power of civil society.” — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“What lies ahead seems unlikely; when it becomes the past, it seems inevitable.” — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
Activism is not a journey to the corner store. It is a plunge into the unknown. The future is always dark. — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“You may be told that the legal decisions lead the changes, that judges and lawmakers lead the culture in those theaters called… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“For twenty years I have sat alone at a desk tinkering with sentences and then sending them out, and for most of… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“Stories migrate secretly. The assumption that whatever we now believe is just common sense, or what we always knew, is a way… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“Political awareness without activism means looking at the devastation, your face turned toward the center of things. Activism can generate hope because… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“The revolution that counts is the one that takes place in the imagination; many kinds of change issue forth thereafter, some gradual… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“Hopefulness is risky, since it is after all a form of trust, trust in the unknown and the possible, even in discontinuity.… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
Joy doesn't betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated and isolated, joy… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“Sulkowicz’s genius was to make her burden tangible, and in so doing make it something others could share. Solidarity has been a… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“The term 'politics of prefiguration' has long been used to describe the idea that if you embody what you aspire to, you… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“There's a kind of activism that's more about bolstering identity than achieving results, one that sometimes seems to make the left the… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“Bush invited his constituency to be blind to the world's real problems, and leftists often do the opposite, gazing so fixedly at… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“We inhabit, in ordinary daylight, a future that was unimaginably dark a few decades ago, when people found the end of the… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“Environmentalists like to say that defeats are permanent, victories temporary. Extinction, like death, is forever, but protection needs to be maintained. But… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“Finding ways to appreciate advances without embracing complacency is a delicate task. It involves being hopeful and motivated and keeping eyes on… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“Another part of the Puritan legacy is the belief that no one should have joy or abundance until everyone does, a belief… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“We write history with our feet and with our presence and our collective voice and vision. And yet, of course, everything in… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“To say that the emperor has no clothes is a nice anti-authoritarian gesture, but to say that everything without exception is going… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“Hope is not a door, but a sense that there might be a door at some point, some way out of the… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“The naively cynical measure a piece of legislation, a victory, a milestone not against the past or the limits of the possible,… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share Image
“Georgia O’Keeffe moved to rural New Mexico, from which she would sign her letters to the people she loved, “from the faraway nearby.” It… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
Joy doesn't betray but sustains activism. And when you face a politics that aspires to make you fearful, alienated and isolated, joy is a… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
“To love someone is to put yourself in their place, we say, which is to put ourself in their story, or figure out how… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
“People have always been good at imagining the end of the world, which is much easier to picture than the strange sidelong paths of… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
“Whose maps are we trying to read? And what are we trying to draw? It's so common to live in a place without truly… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
“I was being cured of soldiering on endlessly: my job was now to be still, which had become almost easy at last.” — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
In the aftermath of 9/11, people had not a good time, but a deep, profound, rousing time, woke up from their ennui and isolation… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
“I wonder now about Demeter and Persephone. Maybe Persephone was glad to run off with the king of death to his underground realm, maybe… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
[In mountaineering, if] we look for private experience rather than public history, even getting to the top becomes an optional narrative rather than the… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
For me, being in a car or on an airplane is like being in limbo. It's this dead zone between two places. But to… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
“How do you calculate upon the unforeseen? It seems to be an art of recognizing the role of the unforeseen, of keeping your balance… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
Walking shares with making and working that crucial element of engagement of the body and the mind with the world, of knowing the world… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
“Marriage equality is a threat: to inequality. It’s a boon to everyone who values and benefits from equality. It’s for all of us.” — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
“Mountaineering is always spoken of as though summiting is conquest, but as you get higher, the world gets bigger, and you feel smaller in… — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
“A procession is a participants' journey, while a parade is a performance with an audience.” — Rebecca Solnit Copy Share
