Abbie Hoffman Quotes

Structure is more important than content in the transmission of information.

Democracy is not something you believe in or a place to hang your hat, but it's something you do. You participate. If you stop doing it, democracy crumbles.

I think the greatest legacy of the 1960s was the general feeling that not only can you fight the powers that be, but you can win.

The first duty of a revolutionist is to get away with it. The second duty is to eat breakfast. I ain't going.

Lay off the needle drugs. The only dope worth shooting is Richard Nixon.

Smoking dope and hanging up Che's picture is no more a
commitment than drinking milk and collecting postage stamps.

If you don't have sex and you don't do drugs, your rock 'n' roll better be awfully good.

The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.

Wouldn't you want to be indicted by the govenment for a high crime? It's a great thrill. It's an honor. It's a compliment. It's fun. I'm enjoying every minute of it!

Action is the only reality; not only reality, but morality as well.

When I appear in the Chicago courtroom, I want to be tried not because I support the NLF - which I do - but because I have long hair.

Maintain a sense of humor. People who take themselves too seriously are power-crazy. If they win it will be haircuts for all. Beware of power freaks.

Random political acts produce random political results. Why waste even a rock?

I learned one thing; you never do anything for fame or money. You only do things 'cause they're fun or good. If you can combine the two at the same time, you can make a contribution to the world and have a lot of happiness.

It's too late. We can't win, they've gotten too powerful.

Expedience, not justice, is the rule of contemporary American law.

It's embarrassing ... you try to overthrow the government and you wind up on the Best Seller's List.

Hep is a very dangerous disease that can cause a number of permanent conditions, including death, which is extremely permanent.

Ou just get stoned, get the ideas in your head and then do 'em. And don't bullshit. I mean that's the thing about doin' that guerrilla theatre. You be prepared to die to prove your point.

Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburgers.

In this state, dig it, you get twenty years for sale of dope to a minor. You only get five to ten for manslaughter. So like, the thing is, if you're selling to a kid and cops come, shoot the kid real quick!

Free speech means the right to shout 'theatre' in a crowded fire.

I was probably the only revolutionary referred to as cute.

It's going to be a combination Scopes trial, revolution in the streets, Woodstock Festival and People's Park, all rolled into one.

Never impose your language on people you wish to reach.

The key to organizing an alternative society is to organize people around what they can do, and more importantly, what they want to do.

Once you get the right image the details aren't that important.

The best way to educate oneself is to become part of the revolution.

There is absolutely no greater high than challenging the power structure as a nobody, giving it your all, and winning!

Every rock or molotov cocktail thrown should make a very obvious political point. Random violence produces random propaganda results. Why waste even a rock?

My critique of democracy begins and ends with this point. Kids must be educated to disrespect authority or else democracy is a farce.

Life actors never rehearse and need no script. A life actor uses only what is available, nothing more, nothing less.

The idea that media is there to educate us, or to inform us, is ridiculous because that's about tenth or eleventh on their list.

Nostalgia is a form of depression both for a society and an individual.

Above all, what you have as young people that's vitally needed to make social change, is impatience. You want it to happen now. There have to be enough people that say, "We want it now, in our lifetime. " We want to see apartheid in South Africa come down right now. We want to see the war in Central America stop right now. We want the CIA off our campus right now. We want an end to sexual harassment in our communities right now. Be adventurists in the sense of being bold and daring. Be opportunists and seize this opportunity, this moment in history, to go out and save our country. It's your turn now.

You are talking to a leftist. I believe in the redistribution of wealth and power in the world. I believe in universal hospital care for everyone. I believe that we should not have a single homeless person in the richest country in the world. And I believe that we should not have a C.I.A. that goes around overwhelming governments and assassinating political leaders, working for tight oligarchies around the world to protect the tight oligarchy here at home.

To steal from a brother or sister is evil. To not steal from the institutions that are the pillars of the Pig Empire is equally immoral.

Understand that legal and illegal are political, and often arbitrary, categorizations; use and abuse are medical, or clinical, distinctions.