It was civil disobedience that won them their civil rights.

“It was civil disobedience that won them their civil rights.”

Tariq Ali

About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

Nonviolent protest can achieve social change more effectively than violence.

In simple terms: Peaceful resistance can win rights.

Key Takeaway

Choose nonviolent action for justice.

Themes

justice nonviolence activism

Mood

determined inspirational urgent

Type

historical motivational

When to use this quote

racial equality
environmental activism
political reform
labor rights

Key Concepts

civil disobedience social movements ethics

Questions to Reflect On

How can nonviolent tactics be protected?
What are limits of civil disobedience?

A Different Perspective

May underestimate violent repression.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet

More by Tariq Ali

American imperialism has always been the imperialism that has been frightened of speaking its name. Now it's beginning to do so. In a way,…

Tariq Ali

Scotland's political identity was destroyed, and a huge Scottish emigration to North America followed the brutal Highland clearances. These included every layer of Scottish…

Tariq Ali

When a country is invaded and attacked and people resist it's important to speak up and to say they have the right to resist…

Tariq Ali

I think another crisis, which is being predicted now and which will be worse than what we saw in 2008, could bring the European…

Tariq Ali

The European Union is effectively a union dominated by the German political and economic elite. Its main function is to serve as a nucleus…

Tariq Ali

Anthony Powell was the most European of 20th-century British novelists.

Tariq Ali

I think democracy is on the decline in the West. Ruling parties are the same: neo-liberalism at home and wars abroad.

Tariq Ali

One cannot discuss Europe without understanding US imperial hegemony, both globally and certainly in Europe as it stands.

Tariq Ali

The Enlightenment attacked religion - Christianity, mainly - for two reasons: that it was a set of ideological delusions, and that it was a…

Tariq Ali

I think the Americans fished out the same condom but found it had too many holes in it.

Tariq Ali

Basically, we are witnessing the twilight of democracy.

Tariq Ali

One could think of ways to defeat the censor. I could put up the answers on my Facebook page or website or Counterpunch. In…

Tariq Ali

In January 1961, the United States severed diplomatic relations in response to Cuban nationalisation of U.S.-owned sugar plantations, banks and businesses.

Tariq Ali

“Monotonous talk of the end of American hegemony, the universal cliché of the period, is mostly a way of avoiding mounting a serious opposition…

Tariq Ali

I was never totally what we would now call 'politically correct,' even in my most militant phase. I always liked good food, good wines.…

Tariq Ali

Explore all 144 Tariq Ali quotes

More Civil disobedience quotes

[Putin] is a bully. And bullies only understand when we punch them in the nose, but we need to do that economically.

Kelly Ayotte

The world - and America - has been defined by people who haven't necessarily abided by the laws and the rules. Civil disobedience is…

Rory Kennedy

When you say 'no' and you get on the streets and you do an act of civil disobedience, it changes your psychology.

Gail Bradbrook

There is all the difference in the world between the criminal's avoiding the public eye and the civil disobedience's taking the law into his…

Hannah Arendt

Racial discrimination in elections in Texas is no mere historical artifact. To the contrary, Texas has been found in violation of the Voting Rights…

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

My first civil disobedience arrest for social justice was in 1986 for protesting the SDI.

Martin Sheen

Even here in America, we felt the cool, refreshing breeze of freedom when Nelson Mandela took the seat of Presidency in his country where…

Maya Angelou

Civil disobedience is a stimulation for the fighters and a challenge to the opponent, in the present instance, authority.

Mahatma Gandhi

“The only word these corporations know is more,” wrote Chris Hedges, former correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor, National Public Radio, and the New York…

Jim Marrs

A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance, nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.

Henry David Thoreau

I became convinced that noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good.

Martin Luther King, Jr

New concepts should be introduced by the power of imagery.

Douglas Coop

Civil disobedience can help to focus attention on a particular injustice. It was used historically to highlight wrongs in society - turning ancient redwood…

Michael Brune