“When I’m really interested in something, I get super-focused on that. And I can spend hours upon hours not getting tired of reading about it and still be interested to learn more about it. And that is very common for people on the autism spectrum. And yeah, and it just—I think that was one of the re…”— Greta Thunberg, democracynow.org
“The political system that you have created is all about competition. You cheat when you can, because all that matters is to win, to get power. That must come to an end, we must stop competing with each other, we need to cooperate and work together and to share the resources of the planet in a fair w…”— Greta Thunberg, eesc.europa.eu
“You can't just sit around waiting for hope to come, you're acting like spoiled irresponsible children. You don't seem to understand that hope is something you have to earn. And if you still say that we are wasting valuable lesson time then let me remind you that our political leaders have wasted dec…”— Greta Thunberg, eesc.europa.eu
“Many people are trying to make the school strikes a question of whether we are promoting truancy or whether we should go back to school or not. They make up all sorts of conspiracies and call us puppets who cannot think for ourselves. They are desperately trying to remove the focus from the climate…”— Greta Thunberg, eesc.europa.eu
“I think when I—I think I was maybe 7, 8, 9 years old when I first heard about the problem. And then, of course, by time, I read about it more and more and sort of understood how important it was and how severe this crisis was. And so, it was around that age and maybe 10, 11, 12. I think I became rea…”— Greta Thunberg, democracynow.org
“If I would have been normal like everyone else, I could just continue like everyone else. And get stuck in the social game, and just continue like before. But since I was different, I see the world from a different perspective, I see things very black and white.”— Greta Thunberg, ft.com
“Tens of thousands of children or schools are striking for the climate on the streets of Brussels. Hundreds of thousands are doing the same all over the world. We are school striking because we have done our homework. And some of us are here today. People always tell us that they are so hopeful. They…”— Greta Thunberg, eesc.europa.eu
“I was so sad because the world was so wrong, everything was so wrong, and then I thought there is no point in living…I became depressed, I stopped eating, and I stopped talking, and I stopped going to school.”— Greta Thunberg, ft.com
“Why should I be studying for a future that soon will be no more, when no one is doing anything to save that future?”— Greta Thunberg, ft.com
“My message to the young people of the world is that right now we are facing an existential crisis, I mean, the climate and ecological crisis, and it will have a massive impact on our lives in the future, but also now, especially in vulnerable communities. And I think that we should wake up, and we s…”— Greta Thunberg, democracynow.org
“Many climate and environmental activists are being attacked, and they are being, in some cases, even killed. And so I’m not the one who we should be focusing on in these cases. And it’s just horrible that you are trying to stand up for something that should be taken for granted—a living world and a…”— Greta Thunberg, democracynow.org
“I think this movement has made a difference; otherwise, they wouldn’t be spending their time trying to discredit us and to mock us.”— Greta Thunberg, democracynow.org
“Today we use 100 million barrels of oil every single day. There are no politics to change that. There are no rules to keep that oil in the ground. So we can no longer save the world by playing by the rules, because the rules have to be changed. So we have not come here to beg the world leaders to ca…”— Greta Thunberg, democracynow.org
“I shouldn’t be sitting here doing nothing, wasting my time, when I can actually have an impact. And then I sort of started to become better, and then I became a climate activist. And that helped a lot. And I think the more involved I became, the more involved I got in the climate movement, the bette…”— Greta Thunberg, democracynow.org
“It is very moving to see everyone who is so passionate to march and strike. People of all ages, all generations. It is a very good day, I would say.”— Greta Thunberg, theguardian.com
“This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be standing here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to me for hope? How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Enti…”— Greta Thunberg, theguardian.com
“Yesterday I spent the day with the D-day veteran Charles Norman Shay at Omaha beach. It was a day I will never forget. Not only because of the unimaginable bravery and sacrifices made by those who gave their lives to defend the freedom and democracy of the world. But also because they managed to do…”— Greta Thunberg, youtube.com
“We have not treated this crisis as a crisis; we see it as another problem that needs to be fixed. But it is so much more than that. It’s an existential crisis, more important than anything else.”— Greta Thunberg, plantbasednews.org