--- title: "6 Alternatives Quotes By Ivan Illich" description: "6 Alternatives quotes by Ivan Illich. Plus more from Ivan Illich and more Alternatives sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca0/ivan-illich-3546_active_even-if-nonpolluting-power-were-feasible_387451.png" --- > [Even if nonpolluting power were feasible and abundant, the use of energy on a massive scale acts on society like a drug…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/even-if-nonpolluting-power-were-feasible-and-abundant-the-use-of/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca0/ivan-illich-3546_active_even-if-nonpolluting-power-were-feasible_387451.png) > [If you want to change society then you must tell an alternative story.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/if-you-want-to-change-society-then-you-must-tell-an-alternative-story/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/18a/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_if-you-want-to-change-society-then-you-m_580225.png) > [Neither revolution nor reformation can ultimately change a society, rather you must tell a new powerful tale, one so persuasive that it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/neither-revolution-nor-reformation-can-ultimately-change-a-society/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/107/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_neither-revolution-nor-reformation-can-u_657052.jpg) > [To be ignorant or unconvinced of one's own needs has become the unforgivable anti-social act. The good citizen is one who imputes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/to-be-ignorant-or-unconvinced-of-one-s-own-needs-has-become-the/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fdf/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_to-be-ignorant-or-unconvinced-of-one-s-o_2448394.png) > [A low-energy policy allows for a wide choice of life-styles and cultures. If, on the other hand, a society opts for high…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/a-low-energy-policy-allows-for-a-wide-choice-of-life-styles-and/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c62/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_a-low-energy-policy-allows-for-a-wide-ch_2807790.png) > [In schools, including universities, most resources are spent to purchase the time and motivation of a limited number of people to take…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/in-schools-including-universities-most-resources-are-spent-to/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dd9/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_in-schools-including-universities-most-r_3128295.jpg) ## Other authors on Alternatives ## More by Ivan Illich > [“Universal education through schooling is not feasible. It would be no more feasible if it were attempted by means of alternative institutions built on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/universal-education-through-schooling-is-not-feasible-it-would-be-no/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [The re-establishment of an ecological balance depends on the ability of society to counteract the progressive materialization of values. The ecological balance cannot be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/the-re-establishment-of-an-ecological-balance-depends-on-the-ability/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [The new experience that has replaced dignified suffering is artificially prolonged, opaque, depersonalized maintenance.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/the-new-experience-that-has-replaced-dignified-suffering-is/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [Losses of a kind of satisfaction that have no market equivalent don't show up in the calculations of economists.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/losses-of-a-kind-of-satisfaction-that-have-no-market-equivalent-don-t/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [Schools are designed on the assumption that there is a secret to everything in life; that the quality of life depends upon knowing that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/schools-are-designed-on-the-assumption-that-there-is-a-secret-to/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [The State shall make no law with respect to the establishment of education.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/the-state-shall-make-no-law-with-respect-to-the-establishment-of/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [What kinds of things and people might learners want to be in contact with in order to learn?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/what-kinds-of-things-and-people-might-learners-want-to-be-in-contact/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [The pupil is ... 'schooled' to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/the-pupil-is-schooled-to-confuse-teaching-with-learning-grade/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [To deschool means to abolish the power of one person to oblige another.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/to-deschool-means-to-abolish-the-power-of-one-person-to-oblige-another/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [Societies in which most people depend for most of their goods and services on the personal whim, kindness, or skill of another are called…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/societies-in-which-most-people-depend-for-most-of-their-goods-and/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [“P3- modernised poverty combines the lack of power over circumstances with a loss of personal potency”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/p3-modernised-poverty-combines-the-lack-of-power-over-circumstances/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [“Today, one must either be isolated and cut off, or a carefully guarded, affluent drop-out, to allow one's children to play in an environment…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/today-one-must-either-be-isolated-and-cut-off-or-a-carefully-guarded/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [The household became the place where the consumption of wages takes place.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/the-household-became-the-place-where-the-consumption-of-wages-takes/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [Man must choose whether to be rich in things or in the freedom to use them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/man-must-choose-whether-to-be-rich-in-things-or-in-the-freedom-to-use/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) > [“Welfare bureaucracies claim a professional, political, and financial monopoly over the social imagination, setting standards of what is valuable and what is feasible. This…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/welfare-bureaucracies-claim-a-professional-political-and-financial/) [Ivan Illich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ivan-illich/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/alternatives/ivan-illich/#itemlist", "name": "6 Alternatives Quotes By Ivan Illich", "numberOfItems": 6, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Even if nonpolluting power were feasible and abundant, the use of energy on a massive scale acts on society like a drug that is physically harmless but psychically enslaving. A community can choose between Methadone and \"cold turkey\"-between maintaining its addiction to alien energy and kicking it in painful cramps-but no society can have a population that is hooked on progressively larger numbers of energy slaves and whose members are also autonomously active.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ivan Illich" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/even-if-nonpolluting-power-were-feasible-and-abundant-the-use-of/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca0/ivan-illich-3546_active_even-if-nonpolluting-power-were-feasible_387451.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca0/ivan-illich-3546_active_even-if-nonpolluting-power-were-feasible_387451.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ca0/ivan-illich-3546_active_even-if-nonpolluting-power-were-feasible_387451.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Even if nonpolluting power were feasible and abundant, the use of energy on a massive scale acts on society…” — Ivan Illich", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "If you want to change society then you must tell an alternative story.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ivan Illich" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/if-you-want-to-change-society-then-you-must-tell-an-alternative-story/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/18a/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_if-you-want-to-change-society-then-you-m_580225.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/18a/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_if-you-want-to-change-society-then-you-m_580225.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/18a/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_if-you-want-to-change-society-then-you-m_580225.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“If you want to change society then you must tell an alternative story.” — Ivan Illich", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Neither revolution nor reformation can ultimately change a society, rather you must tell a new powerful tale, one so persuasive that it sweeps away the old myths and becomes the preferred story, one so inclusive that it gathers all the bits of our past and our present into a coherent whole, one that even shines some light into the future so that we can take the next step… If you want to change a society, then you have to tell an alternative story.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ivan Illich" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/neither-revolution-nor-reformation-can-ultimately-change-a-society/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/107/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_neither-revolution-nor-reformation-can-u_657052.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/107/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_neither-revolution-nor-reformation-can-u_657052.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/107/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_neither-revolution-nor-reformation-can-u_657052.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Neither revolution nor reformation can ultimately change a society, rather you must tell a new powerful…” — Ivan Illich", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "To be ignorant or unconvinced of one's own needs has become the unforgivable anti-social act. The good citizen is one who imputes standardized needs to himself with such conviction that he drowns out any desire for alternatives, much less the renunciation of need.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ivan Illich" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/to-be-ignorant-or-unconvinced-of-one-s-own-needs-has-become-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fdf/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_to-be-ignorant-or-unconvinced-of-one-s-o_2448394.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fdf/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_to-be-ignorant-or-unconvinced-of-one-s-o_2448394.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/fdf/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_to-be-ignorant-or-unconvinced-of-one-s-o_2448394.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“To be ignorant or unconvinced of one's own needs has become the unforgivable anti-social act. 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If, on the other hand, a society opts for high energy consumption, its social relations must be dictated by technocracy and will be equally degrading whether labeled capitalist or socialist.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Ivan Illich" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ivan-illich/a-low-energy-policy-allows-for-a-wide-choice-of-life-styles-and/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c62/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_a-low-energy-policy-allows-for-a-wide-ch_2807790.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c62/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_a-low-energy-policy-allows-for-a-wide-ch_2807790.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c62/ivan-illich-3546_alternatives_a-low-energy-policy-allows-for-a-wide-ch_2807790.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“A low-energy policy allows for a wide choice of life-styles and cultures. 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