In revolutions the occasions may be trifling but great interests are at stake.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
To revolt is a natural tendency of life. Even a worm turns against the foot that crushes it. In general, the vitality and relative dignity of an animal can be measured by the intensity of its instinct to revolt.
—Mikhail Bakunin (1814–76) Russian Anarchist Philosopher
Insurrection. An unsuccessful revolution; disaffection’s failure to substitute misrule for bad government.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
The rebel can never find peace. He knows what is good and, despite himself, does evil. The value which supports him is never given to him once and for all—he must fight to uphold it, unceasingly.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
A nation grown free in a single day is a child born with the limbs and the vigor of a man, who would take a drawn sword for his rattle, and set the house in a blaze that he might chuckle over the splendor.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
I have been ever of opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Revolutionaries are more formalistic than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino (1923–85) Italian Novelist, Essayist, Journalist
Revolutions are always verbose.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
Art is either plagiarism or revolution.
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter
All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door. The violence of revolutions is the violence of men who charge into a vacuum.
—John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) Canadian-Born American Economist
Every revolution was first a thought in one man’s mind.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
At twenty a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he is seventy he still wants to reform the world, but he know he can’t.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
Let them call it mischief; when it’s past and prospered, it will be virtue.
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
In every revolution there intrude, at the side of its true agents, men of a different stamp; some of them survivors of and devotees to past revolutions, without insight into the present movement, but preserving popular influence by their known honesty and courage, or by the sheer force of tradition; others mere brawlers, who, by dint of repeating year after year the same set of stereotyped declamations against the government of the day, have sneaked into the reputation of revolutionists of the first water They are an unavoidable evil: with time they are shaken off.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
All men should have a drop of treason in their veins, if nations are not to go soft like so many sleepy pears.
—Rebecca West (1892–1983) English Author, Journalist, Literary Critic
Those who give the first shock to a state are naturally the first to be overwhelmed in its ruin. The fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by the man who was the first to set it a-going; he only troubles the water for another’s net.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Most commonly revolt is born of material circumstances; but insurrection is always a moral phenomenon. Revolt is Masaniello, who led the Neapolitan insurgents in 1647; but insurrection is Spartacus. Insurrection is a thing of the spirit, revolt is a thing of the stomach.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Insurrection: Insurrection as soon as circumstances allow: insurrection, strenuous, ubiquitous: the insurrection of the masses: the holy war of the oppressed: the republic to make republicans: the people in action to initiate progress. Let the insurrection announce with its awful voice the decrees of God: let it clear and level the ground on which its own immortal structure shall be raised. Let it, like the Nile, flood all the country that it is destined to make fertile.
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) Italian Patriot, Political Leader
Revolutions are not made; they come.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
Insurrection is an art, and like all arts has its own laws.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
Every act of rebellion expresses a nostalgia for innocence and an appeal to the essence of being.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
Too many so-called leaders of the movement have been made into celebrities and their revolutionary fervor destroyed by mass media. They become Hollywood objects and lose identification with the real issues. The task is to transform society; only the people can do that
—Huey P. Newton (1942–89) American Political Activist
I know and all the world knows, that revolutions never go backwards.
—William H. Seward (1801–72) American Elected Representative, Lawyer, Politician, Activist
All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British Sexologist, Physician, Social Reformer
Revolutions are not made for export.
—Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) Russian Head of State, Political leader
Oh, my friend, it’s not what they take away from you that counts—it’s what you do with what you have left.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
Independence in the end is the fruit of injustice.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
I hold it that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer