Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Greta Thunburg

I remember when I was younger, and in school, our teachers showed us films of plastic in the ocean, starving polar bears and so on. I cried through all the movies. My classmates were concerned when they watched the film, but when it stopped, they started thinking about other things. I couldn't do that. Those pictures were stuck in my head.

The real danger is not inaction. The real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like action is happening when in fact nothing is being done.

I'm on the autism spectrum. I don't usually follow social coding and so therefore I go my own way.

Even if the politics needed doesn't exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country.

Giving up cannot be an option.

Once we start to act, hope is everywhere. So instead of looking for hope, look for action. Then, and only then, hope will come.

Sweden is not a green paradise, it has one of the biggest carbon footprints.

By stopping flying, you don't only reduce your own carbon footprint but also that sends a signal to other people around you that the climate crisis is a real thing and that helps push a political movement.

Some people say that I should study to become a climate scientist so that I can 'solve the climate crisis.' But the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we have to do is to wake up and change.

Some people say that the climate crisis is something that we will have created, but that is not true, because if everyone is guilty then no one is to blame. And someone is to blame.

At places like Davos, people like to tell success stories. But their financial success has come with an unthinkable price tag. And on climate change, we have to acknowledge we have failed.

I thought I couldn't make a difference because I was too small.

Not having hope is not an excuse for not doing something.

I know so many people who feel hopeless, and they ask me, 'What should I do?' And I say: 'Act. Do something.' Because that is the best medicine against sadness and depression.

The symbolism of the climate strike is that if you adults don't give a damn about my future, I won't either.

Many people seem to have this double moral. They say one thing and then do another thing. They say that the climate crisis is very important and yet they do nothing about it.

Sometimes it's Tune-berg, sometimes Thunn-berg. I mean, I think it's funny that everyone pronounces it differently. So, that is just - I don't mind anyone pronouncing it wrong. There's no wrong way to pronounce it. Everyone pronounces it in their own way.

Some people can just let things go, but I can't, especially if there's something that worries me or makes me sad.

I think in many ways that we autistic are the normal ones and the rest of the people are pretty strange. They keep saying that climate change is an existential threat and the most important issue of all. And yet they just carry on like before.

I am an introvert; privately I am very shy, and I don't speak unless I have to.

I have Asperger's, I'm on the autism spectrum, so I don't really care about social codes. It makes you think differently.

It is hard sometimes to always be at the centre of attention, but when you talk about me you also have to talk about the climate.

Nothing is being done to stop the climate and ecological emergency from happening and to secure the future wellbeing for future generations.

We all have a choice. We can create transformational action that will safeguard the living conditions for future generations. Or we can continue with our business as usual and fail.

We should no longer measure our wealth and success in the graph that shows economic growth, but in the curve that shows the emissions of greenhouse gases.

I see the world in black and white, and I don't like compromising.

We have to understand what the older generation has dealt to us, what mess they have created that we have to clean up and live with.

We are living in the beginning of a mass extinction and our climate is breaking down.

Before I started school striking I had no energy, no friends and I didn't speak to anyone. I just sat alone at home, with an eating disorder. All of that is gone now, since I have found a meaning, in a world that sometimes seems shallow and meaningless to so many people.

If there really was a crisis, and if this crisis was caused by our emissions, you would at least see some signs. Not just flooded cities, tens of thousands of dead people, and whole nations leveled to piles of torn down buildings. You would see some restrictions. But no. And no one talks about it.

For way too long the politicians and people in power have got away with not doing anything at all to fight the climate crisis and ecological crisis.

We should not underestimate ourselves, because if lots of individuals go together then we can accomplish almost anything.

It felt like I was the only one who cared about the climate and the ecological crisis. My parents didn't care about it, my classmates didn't care about it, my relatives didn't care about this. I mean nobody I knew cared about this and I felt like I was the only one.

If burning fossil fuels was so bad that it threatened our very existence, how could we just continue like before? Why were there no restrictions? Why wasn't it made illegal? To me, that did not add up.

I'm telling you there is hope. I have seen it, but it does not come from the governments or corporations. It comes from the people.

I write all of my own speeches.

Many people, especially in the U.S., see countries like Sweden or Norway or Finland as role models - we have such a clean energy sector, and so on. That may be true, but we are not role models.

You can rebel in different ways. Civil disobedience is rebelling. As long as it's peaceful, of course.

We can't just choose to tell some facts and not others because we don't want to upset people. We have to tell it like it is.

It is our future on the line, and we must at least have a say in it.

I mean, people aren't continuing like this and not doing anything because they are evil, or because they don't want to. We aren't destroying the biosphere because we are selfish. We are doing it simply because we are unaware.

Social media can be very effective in creating movements. In the beginning, that is how I first got attention.

I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.

To do your best is no longer good enough. We now have to do the seemingly impossible.

There are thousands of ways to take action. For example, plant trees, pick up litter, join an organisation or movement that makes a difference and especially try to influence adults and put pressure on people in power.

We can't just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow.

I don't use any animal products, both because of ethical and environmental and climate reasons.

Of course, individual change doesn't make much difference in a holistic picture... but we need both systemic change and individual change.

At first when I heard about climate change, I was a climate denier. I didn't think it was happening. Because if there really was an existential crisis like that, that would threaten our civilisation, we wouldn't be focusing on anything else. That would be our first priority. So I didn't understand how that added up.

We can no longer save the world by playing by the rules.

I have always been that girl in the back who doesn't say anything.

The most common criticism I get is that I'm being manipulated and you shouldn't use children in political ways, because that is abuse, and I can't think for myself and so on. And I think that is so annoying! I'm also allowed to have a say - why shouldn't I be able to form my own opinion and try to change people's minds?

When I'm really interested in something, I get superfocused 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.

I have promised myself that I'm going to do everything I can for as long as I can.

People are unaware of what is going on. When I talk to people, they know the basics, they know the planet is warming because of greenhouse gases... but they don't know the actual consequence of that.

The climate crisis is both the easiest and the hardest issue we have ever faced. The easiest because we know what we must do. We must stop the emissions of greenhouse gases. The hardest because our current economics are still totally dependent on burning fossil fuels, and thereby destroying ecosystems in order to create everlasting economic growth.

Solving the climate crisis is the greatest and most complex challenge that homo sapiens have ever faced. The main solution, however, is so simple that even a small child can understand it. We have to stop our emissions of greenhouse gases.

People tell me that they are so hopeful when they see me and other children 'school-striking,' and they say, 'Oh the children are going to save us.' But no, we aren't. We are too young to be able to do that. We don't have time to wait for us to grow up and fix this in the future.

Learning about climate change triggered my depression in the first place. But it was also what got me out of my depression, because there were things I could do to improve the situation. I don't have time to be depressed anymore.

There's always going to be people who don't understand or accept the united science, and I will just ignore them, as I'm only acting and communicating on the science.