"This is not class warfare, this is generational warfare. This administration and old wealthy people have declared war on young people. That is the real war that is going on here. And that is the war we've got to talk about."
-- James Carville

Every night on the stop global warming college tour, Laurie and I would tell these great young people that they have the power to do anything they want. That we all have the power to create a movement for change. That the best part of ourselves is the part that rises up instinctively from compassion. I believe this to be true. I believe that divinity exists in all of us and that if we eliminate some of the chatter in our lives, the voice of compassion will have a chance to be heard. And, if we were to act from a place of compassion in every act of our lives, would we be arguing about whether global warming exists? Or would we simply be living our lives peacefully knowing that how we live will affect the planet we leave for our children and for their children. If compassion was the motivating factor behind all of our decisions, would our world not be a completely different place? Food for thought. -- Sheryl Crow

You can never stop and as older people, we have to learn how to take leadership from the youth and I guess I would say that this is what I'm attempting to do right now. -- Angela Davis

"I would so much like young people to have a sense of the gift that they are. Not many of them feel like that." ~ John Denver "I think the biggest problem in the world is that we have a generation of young people, and maybe two, who don't think it's going to get any better." ~ John Denver

Too many people grow up. That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be 12 years old. They patronize, they treat children as inferiors.
-- Walt Disney

We live in an age when to be young and to be indifferent can be no longer synonymous. We must prepare for the coming hour. The claims of the Future are represented by suffering millions; and the Youth of a Nation are the trustees of Posterity.
-- Benjamin Disraeli

"Don't criticize what you can't understand, your sons and your daughters are beyond your command." -- Bob Dylan

I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity. -- Albert Einstein

"Children organizing for political rights will probably be treated initially with ridicule and derision, and then with misunderstanding and perhaps eventually violence if the experience of the struggle for women's suffrage is any precedent. Undoubtedly the greatest obstacle to be overcome is the adult refusal to acknowledge that children suffer political discrimination and exclusion. Adults do not perceive children as a minority group but as helpless, inexperienced, defenseless young people who need protection. Adult paternalism seeks to protect and if in this process it curtails freedom, truncates potential and destroys civil liberties this is taken to be incidental. The belief in the legitimacy of paternalism justifies and cements the existing power relationships between adults and young people. This attitude must be confronted, challenged and refuted if young people are to secure their political rights..."
-- Bob Franklin "The Rights of Children"

It's easy to become hopeless. So people must have hope: the human brain, the resilience of nature, the energy of young people and the sort of inspiration that you see from so many hundreds of people who tackle tasks that are impossible and never give up and succeed. ~ Jane Goodall

Age is not an accomplishment, and youth is not a sin.
-- Robert Heinlein

What greater cause and what more splendid adventure can be set before the youth of the world than the endeavor to bring into being that age-old dream of saints and sages - the great Commonwealth of the World as the visible embodiment of the brotherhood of man? -- Arthur Henderson

 

Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire. It was given to us to learn at the outset that life is a profound and passionate thing.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.
-- Herbert Clark Hoover

"Our youth are not failing the system; the system is failing our youth. Ironically, the very youth who are being treated the worst are the young people who are going to lead us out of this nightmare."
-- Rachel Jackson

"Every generation needs a new revolution. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Most homeless kids are on the streets because they have been forced by circumstances that cause them to think that they are safer there than in any home they once knew. -- Jewel We must all work together to end youth homelessness in America -- Jewel

Life in a shelter or on the streets puts homeless kids and youth at a higher risk for physical and sexual assault and abuse, physical illness, including HIV/AIDS
-- Jewel

Support for shelters and transitional living and housing programs is necessary if we are going to change the landscape for homeless boys and girls in America.
-- Jewel

What I know about street outreach is that it is essential to dealing with the issue of youth homelessness.
-- Jewel

 

“There is no obstacle in the path of young people who are poor or members of minority groups that hard work and preparation cannot cure.” -- Barbara Jordan

"...we condemned them, our children, for seeking a different future. We hated them for their flowers, for their love, and for their unmistakeable rejection of every hideous, mistaken compromise that we had made throughout our hollow, money- bitten, frightened, adult lives -- June Jordan

You have so much power to bring awareness, prevention and change. -- Ashley Judd As a Goodwill Ambassador for YouthAIDS, I’ve learned that the face of AIDS is increasingly young and female. By educating young people and empowering them to make the right choices we can stop the spread of HIV/AIDS

"This world demands the qualities of youth: not a time of life but a state of mind, a temper of the will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease." -- Robert F. Kennedy "Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation." -- Robert F. Kennedy

* "Peace is a culture that we create by putting it in the curriculum for young people, through creating this next generation where young people get a chance to go across borders, across cultures, to learn more about each other's life, to create a global community, learn about opportunities for helping others. It's investing in peace and tolerance training, ending the gap between rich and poor." -- Craig Kielburger "If we are to achieve true peace in this world, it shall have to begin with the children." -- Craig Kielburger

* Give young people a chance, our generation may just surprise you! -- Marc Kielburger If we are to achieve a world free from nuclear weapons, we need the involvement of young people. Youth have energy, enthusiasm and many good ideas to share. Most importantly, however, it is young people who will be inheriting the problems which have been left to them by the generations past. -- Marc Kielburger

Whatever career you may choose for yourself - doctor, lawyer, teacher - let me propose an avocation to be pursued along with it. Become a dedicated fighter for civil rights. Make it a central part of your life. It will make you a better doctor, a better lawyer, a better teacher. It will enrich your spirit as nothing else possibly can. It will give you that rare sense of nobility that can only spring from love and selflessly helping your fellow man. Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for human rights. You will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country and a finer world to live in." -- Martin Luther King, Jr Every one can be great because everyone can serve. -- Martin Luther King, Jr

"One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. Today, our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change."
-- Martin Luther King, Jr

Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation. -- Coretta Scott King

When Nike says, just do it, that's a message of empowerment. Why aren't the rest of us speaking to young people in a voice of inspiration? -- Naomi Klein

I was surprised by the response of young people because there is a perception that those younger than the 1988 generation are not interested in politics. -- Aung San Suu Kyi

YOUTH QUOTES

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YOUTH
HERO PIX

Hafsat Abiola | Kofi Annan | Craig Kielburger
Chief Oren Lyons | Benjamin Quinto

Intl. Youth Day - August 12