Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Attributed in Curing Nuclear Madness (1984) by Frank G. Sommers and Tana Dineen, p. 158; also in And I Quote: The Definitive Collection of Quotes, Sayings, and Jokes for the Contemporary Speechmaker (1992), edited by Ashton Applewhite, Tripp Evans, and Andrew Frothingham. No contemporaneous source is known. Ralph Keyes, in the introduction to The Quote Verifier (2006), p. xvi, gives this as an example of situations where derivative sources merely cite each other and no one knows the original source.

/ Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Never believe that a few caring people can't change the world. For, indeed, that's all who ever have. A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever does. Never doubt that a thoughtful, committed individual can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.