Fred Hampton Quotes

"You can kill a revolutionary but you can never kill the revolution."

"I am the people, I'm not the pig. You got to make a distinction. And the people are going to have to attack the pigs. The people are going to have to stand up against the pigs. That's what the Panthers is doing, that's what the Panthers are doing all over the world."

"Let me just say: Peace to you, if you're willing to fight for it."

"You have to understand that people have to pay a price for peace. If you dare to struggle, you dare to win."

"Everything would be alright if everything was put back in the hands of the people, and we're going to have to put it back in the hands of the people."

"I believe I'm going to die doing the things I was born to do. I believe I'm going to die high off the people. I believe I'm going to die a revolutionary in the international revolutionary proletarian struggle."

"You can't build a revolution with no education. Jomo Kenyatta did this in Africa, and because the people were not educated, he became as much an oppressor as the people he overthrew."

"We're going to fight racism not with racism, but we're going to fight with solidarity. We say we're not going to fight capitalism with black capitalism, but we're going to fight it with socialism."

"We're not a racist organization, because we understand that racism is an excuse used for capitalism, and we know that racism is just - it's a byproduct of capitalism."

"We do not support people who are anarchistic, opportunistic, adventuristic, and Custeristic."

"We say that we will work with anybody and form a coalition with anybody that has revolution on their mind."

"If you ever think about me, and you ain't gonna do no revolutionary act, forget about me. I don't want myself on your mind if you're not going to work for the people."

"You can jail a revolutionary, but you can't jail the revolution."

"Yes, we do defend our office as we do defend our homes. This is a constitutional right everybody has, and nothing's funny about that. The only reason they get mad at the Black Panther Party when you do it is for the simple reason that we're political."

"A lot of people don't understand the Black Panthers Party's relationship with white mother country radicals."

"With no education, you have neocolonialism instead of colonialism, like you've got in Africa now and like you've got in Haiti. So what we're talking about is there has to be an educational program. That's very important."

"A lot of people think the Breakfast for Children program is charity. But what does it do? It takes the people from a stage to another stage. Any program that's revolutionary is an advancing program. Revolution is change."

"The Black Panther Party stood up and said that we don't care what anybody says. We don't think fighting fire with fire is best; we think you fight fire with water best."

"I have a lot of respect for Martin Luther King. I think he was one of the greatest orators that the country ever produced."

"People have to be armed to have power, you see."

"I'm not afraid to say I'm at war with the pigs."

"We say primarily that the priority of this struggle is class. That Marx and Lenin and Che Guevara and Mao Tse-Tung, and anybody else who ever said or knew or practiced anything about revolution, always said that a revolution is a class struggle."

"I went down to the prison in Menard, thinking we were the vanguard, but down there, I got down on my knees and listened and learned from the people."