Nonviolent tactics can move into action on our behalf men not naturally inclined to act for us.
BARBARA DEMINGThe point is to change one’s life. The point is not to give some vent to the emotions that have been destroying one; the point is so to act that one can master them now.
More Barbara Deming Quotes
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All prisons that have existed in our society to date put people away as no human being should ever be put away.
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There should be no censorship of mail.
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Think first of the action that is right to take, think later about coping with one’s fears.
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We learn best to listen to our own voices if we are listening at the same time to other women-whose stories, for all our differences, turn out, if we listen well, to be our stories also.
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Punishment cannot heal spirits, can only break them.
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People who attack others need rationalizations for doing so. We undermine those rationalizations.
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Nonviolent action does not have to get others to be nice. It can in effect force them to consult their consciences.
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A great many of us must move from words to acts – from words of dissent to acts of disobedience.
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there is clearly a kind of anger that is healthy. It is the concentration of one’s whole being in the determination: this must change.
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People may find it more comfortable to listen to us if we equivocate, but in the long run only words that discomfort them are going to change our situation.
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Gandhi once declared that it was his wife who unwittingly taught him the effectiveness of nonviolence. Who better than women should know that battles can be won without resort to physical strength? Who better than we should know all the power that resides in noncooperation?
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The point is to change one’s life. The point is not to give some vent to the emotions that have been destroying one; the point is so to act that one can master them now.
BARBARA DEMING -
I think the only choice that will enable us to hold to our vision. . . is one that abandons the concept of naming enemies and adopts a concept familiar to the nonviolent tradition: naming behavior that is oppressive.
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The longer we listen to one another – with real attention – the more commonality we will find in all our lives. That is, if we are careful to exchange with one another life stories and not simply opinions.
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Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds the thought of victory and the thought of punishing the enemy coincide.
BARBARA DEMING