“Much protest is naive; it expects quick, visible improvement and despairs and gives up when such improvement does not come.”

"A Poem of Difficult Hope".
What Are People For? (1990)
Context: Much protest is naive; it expects quick, visible improvement and despairs and gives up when such improvement does not come. Protesters who hold out for longer have perhaps understood that success is not the proper goal. If protest depended on success, there would be little protest of any durability or significance. History simply affords too little evidence that anyone's individual protest is of any use. Protest that endures, I think, is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success: namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one's own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Much protest is naive; it expects quick, visible improvement and despairs and gives up when such improvement does not c…" by Wendell Berry?
Wendell Berry photo
Wendell Berry 189
author 1934

Related quotes

Wendell Berry photo
Sarah Wollaston photo

“Maybe I was naive, but I thought the whole point of being an MP was to scrutinise legislation and improve it.”

Sarah Wollaston (1962) British politician

Quoted in The Economist, 6th April 2013, p. 36

Indra Nooyi photo

“He who does not improve his temper together with his understanding, is not much the better for it.”

John Mason (1706–1763) English Independent minister and author

A Treatise on Self-Knowledge (1745)

Paul Morphy photo

“Let the chessboard supercede the card table, and a great improvement will be visible in the morals of the community.”

Paul Morphy (1837–1884) American chess player

As quoted in Testimonials to Paul Morphy: Presented at University Hall, New York, May 25, 1859

Jodi Picoult photo

“There are two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations.”

Variant: There were two ways to be happy: improve your reality, or lower your expectations
Source: Nineteen Minutes

Frantz Fanon photo

Related topics