Alice Walker is an American novelist, poet, and essayist whose work often examines race, gender, and the struggle for dignity. Her novel *The Color Purple* won both the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award in 1983. The line “The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they do not have any power at all” is widely attributed to Walker, but a reliable original source or specific occasion for it is not clearly established. It also circulates in shorter versions, so it is best not to assign it to a particular book or speech without evidence.
The quote’s force lies in the gap between having no power and believing you have none. People may face real limits imposed by institutions, prejudice, or circumstance; the line does not make those obstacles disappear. Instead, it warns that assuming change is impossible can keep people from using the choices, voices, and relationships they do have. Its message resonates because it offers a starting point, not a promise of easy control: recognizing even a small measure of agency can make room for action, solidarity, and change.