Angela Davis quotes offer powerful reflections on freedom, equality, courage, education, and social change. As a scholar, author, and activist, Davis has spent decades writing and speaking about justice, liberation, and the importance of collective action. Her words continue to encourage readers to question injustice, imagine a better future, and take meaningful action. In this collection, we have gathered 39 authentic Angela Davis quotes from her books, interviews, speeches, and public appearances.
- “I am no longer accepting the things I cannot change. I am changing the things I cannot accept.” — Angela Davis, attributed to her published work.
- “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.” — Angela Davis.
- “Radical simply means ‘grasping things at the root.'” — Angela Davis, Women, Culture & Politics.
- “Walls turned sideways are bridges.” — Angela Davis.
- “We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.” — Angela Davis.
- “We know the road to freedom has always been stalked by death.” — Angela Davis.
- “Justice is indivisible. You can’t decide who gets civil rights and who doesn’t.” — Angela Davis.
- “It is only through the imagination that we reinvent ourselves and our relation to others.” — Angela Davis.
- “Leadership does not have to be individualistic… it can be collective.” — Angela Davis.
- “Sometimes we have to do the work even though we don’t yet see a glimmer on the horizon that it’s actually going to be possible.” — Angela Davis.
- “It is in collectivities that we find reservoirs of hope and optimism.” — Angela Davis.
- “Past struggles cannot correct current injustices.” — Angela Davis, Conversations with Angela Davis.
- “We are never assured of justice without a fight.” — Angela Davis.
- “Prisons do not disappear social problems; they disappear human beings.” — Angela Davis.
- “We take prisons for granted but are often afraid to face the realities they produce.” — Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?.
- “Particularly in the United States, race has always played a central role in constructing presumptions of criminality.” — Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?.
- “It should be remembered that the ancestors of many of today’s most ardent liberals could not have imagined life without slavery.” — Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?.
- “Because we are so accustomed to talking about race in terms of black and white, we often fail to recognize and contest expressions of racism that target people of color who are not black.” — Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?.
- “Feminism doesn’t belong to anyone in particular.” — Angela Davis, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle.
- “To understand how any society functions, you must understand the relationship between the men and the women.” — Angela Davis.
- “Birth control, individual choice, safe contraceptive methods, as well as abortions when necessary — is a fundamental prerequisite for the emancipation of women.” — Angela Davis, Women, Race and Class.
- “Progressive art can assist people to learn not only about the objective forces at work in the society in which they live.” — Angela Davis.
- “Where cultural representations do not reach out beyond themselves, there is the danger that they will function as the surrogates for activism.” — Angela Davis.
- “The challenge of the twenty-first century is not to demand equal opportunity to participate in the machinery of oppression.” — Angela Davis.
- “The prison has become a black hole into which the detritus of contemporary capitalism is deposited.” — Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?.
- “The prison industrial complex is much more than the sum of all the jails and prisons in this country.” — Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?.
- “Freedom can’t be contained within a paradigm that is individualistic.” — Angela Davis.
- “The idea of freedom is inspiring. But what does it mean?” — Angela Davis.
- “I don’t think we have any alternative other than remaining optimistic.” — Angela Davis.
- “It is important not only to have the awareness and to feel impelled to become involved.” — Angela Davis.
- “What the civil rights movement did, it seems to me, was to create a new terrain for asking new questions and moving in new directions.” — Angela Davis.
- “The process of empowerment cannot be simplistically defined in accordance with our own particular class interests.” — Angela Davis.
- “We must learn to lift as we climb.” — Angela Davis, Women, Culture & Politics.
- “Hope is a discipline, not an emotion.” — Angela Davis, documented at a GLIDE conversation.
- “I wasn’t courageous. I was scared to death.” — Angela Davis, GLIDE conversation.
- “As one person, we can do very little. But as hundreds and thousands and millions of people, we can change the world.” — Angela Davis, GLIDE conversation.
- “Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life.” — Angela Davis, Angela Davis: An Autobiography.
- “We have to learn how to imagine the future in terms that are not restricted to our own lifetimes.” — Angela Davis, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle.
- “Abolition is not primarily a negative strategy. It’s not primarily about dismantling, getting rid of, but it’s about reenvisioning.” — Angela Davis, Democracy Now! interview, 2020.
Angela Davis quotes continue to encourage readers to think critically about freedom, equality, courage, and social change.
