Saul Alinsky Quotes

Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have. – Saul Alinsky

The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself. – Saul Alinsky

Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict. – Saul Alinsky

There can be no such thing as a successful traitor, for if one succeeds in overthrowing one’s own country, one’s reward is to be the ruler. – Saul Alinsky

The organizer must be able to split himself into two parts – one part in the arena of action where he polarizes the issue to 100 to nothing, and helps to lead his forces into conflict, while the other part knows that when the time comes for negotiations, it really is only a 10 percent difference. – Saul Alinsky

The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. – Saul Alinsky

The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. – Saul Alinsky

Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have. – Saul Alinsky

The organizer’s job is to elicit people’s hidden self-interests and to align them with the cause. – Saul Alinsky

The organizer’s job is to create the issues or problems. – Saul Alinsky

We are not promising anyone anything. We are asking them to be in a people organization which, by its very nature, cannot continue unless there is a constantly increasing number of members. – Saul Alinsky

The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one. – Saul Alinsky

Do one of three things. One, go find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing-but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates. – Saul Alinsky

A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. – Saul Alinsky

An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma to begin with, he does not have a fixed truth— truth to him is relative and changing; everything to him is relative and changing. – Saul Alinsky

An organizer must stir up dissatisfaction and discontent. – Saul Alinsky

The job of the organizer is to keep the flame of discontent alive. – Saul Alinsky

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd. – Saul Alinsky

The organizer’s job is to provide the mechanism that can turn the insipid demands of the masses into revolutionary demands. – Saul Alinsky

A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. – Saul Alinsky

If you want to change the world, you have to allow yourself to be influenced by the world. – Saul Alinsky

A people’s organization is a social myth covering the reality of political dominance. – Saul Alinsky

Once the organizer has established his rapport with the individual, he allows the mask to drop and reveals himself fully as one who personally cares. – Saul Alinsky

An organizer working in and for an open society is in an ideological dilemma. – Saul Alinsky

The social relation of the organizer to the people he is organizing is equal to the ice of reeds to turkeys. – Saul Alinsky

The organizer accepted the initial ethical challenge of death. – Saul Alinsky

The revolutionary force today has two targets— moral as well as material. – Saul Alinsky

The end is what you want, the means is how you get it. – Saul Alinsky

If you make a mistake, make it so big that everyone understands. – Saul Alinsky

Always remember the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have. – Saul Alinsky

In order to organize a people organization, all the people must be brought together. – Saul Alinsky

The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition. – Saul Alinsky

The means-and-ends morality of any particular system of ethical values is judged by the relative value system of the individuals within it. – Saul Alinsky

The third rule of power tactics (I just made this rule up) is: Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy. – Saul Alinsky

The fifth rule of power tactics is: Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. – Saul Alinsky

The seventh rule of power tactics is: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag. – Saul Alinsky

Don’t forget Rule #6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy. – Saul Alinsky

The eighth rule: Keep the pressure on. Never let up. – Saul Alinsky

The tenth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments. – Saul Alinsky

The eleventh rule is: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. – Saul Alinsky

The first rule of power tactics is: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have. – Saul Alinsky

Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. – Saul Alinsky

If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. – Saul Alinsky

It is not enough to know how to fight. You must also know how to sell. The two are inseparable. – Saul Alinsky

Change comes from power, and power comes from organization. – Saul Alinsky