A reform is a correction of abuses; a revolution is a transfer of power.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
In this Revolution no plans have been written for retreat.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Although a system may cease to exist in the legal sense or as a structure of power, its values (or anti-values), its philosophy, its teachings remain in us. They rule our thinking, our conduct, our attitude to others. The situation is a demonic paradox: we have toppled the system but we still carry its genes.
—Ryszard Kapuscinski (1932–2007) Polish Journalist
The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over we realize this: that the human race has been roughly handled, but that it has advanced.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
If there is any period one would desire to be born in, is it not the age of Revolution; when the old and the new stand side by side, and admit of being compared; when the energies of all men are searched by fear and by hope; when the historic glories of the old can be compensated by the rich possibilities of the new era?
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
We have wasted our spirit in the regions of the abstract and general just as the monks let it wither in the world of prayer and contemplation.
—Alexander Herzen (1812–70) Russian Revolutionary, Writer
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
What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny: they have only shifted it to another shoulder.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Revolutions never go backwards.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
In the relations of a weak Government and a rebellious people there comes a time when every act of the authorities exasperates the masses, and every refusal to act excites their contempt.
—John Reed (1887–1920) American Journalist, Poet
You said, “They’re harmless dreamers and they’re loved by the people.”—“What,” I asked you, “is harmless about a dreamer, and what,” I asked you, “is harmless about the love of the people? Revolution only needs good dreamers who remember their dreams.”
—Tennessee Williams (1911–83) American Playwright
Political convulsions, like geological upheavings, usher in new epochs of the world’s progress.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
Insurrection. An unsuccessful revolution; disaffection’s failure to substitute misrule for bad government.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Revolution today is taken for granted, and in consequence becomes rather dull.
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) English Novelist, Painter, Critic
The Revolution was effected before the War commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments of their duties and obligations. This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people, was the real American Revolution.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
At the crash of economic collapse of which the rumblings can already be heard, the sleeping soldiers of the proletariat will awake as at the fanfare of the Last Judgment and the corpses of the victims of the struggle will arise and demand an accounting from those who are loaded down with curses.
—Karl Liebknecht (1871–1919) German Barrister, Politician, Revolutionary
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
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
And then, Sir, there is this consideration, that if the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up, and claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
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
You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing is worth dying for, when did this begin..? …Should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots of Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard ’round the world?
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
Revolutions are not made, they come. A revolution is as natural a growth as an oak. It comes out of the past. Its foundations are laid far back.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
The scrupulous and the just, the noble, humane, and devoted natures; the unselfish and the intelligent may begin a movement—but it passes away from them. They are not the leaders of a revolution. They are its victims.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
The children of the revolution are always ungrateful, and the revolution must be grateful that it is so.
—Ursula K. Le Guin (b.1929) American Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer
A riot is the language of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Revolutionaries are more formalistic than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino (1923–85) Italian Novelist, Essayist, Journalist
I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood.
—John Mason Brown (1900–69) American Columnist, Journalist, Author
Every revolution was first a thought in one man’s mind.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Revolution is the larva of civilization.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
Insurrection is an art, and like all arts has its own laws.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
We must realize that todays Establishment is the new George III. Whether it will continue to adhere to his tactics, we do not know. If it does, the redress, honored in tradition, is also revolution.
—William O. Douglas (1898–1980) American Judge
Write on my gravestone: “Infidel, Traitor.”—infidel to every church that compromises with wrong; traitor to every government that oppresses the people.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
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
Whether a revolutions succeeds or fails people of great hearts will always be sacrificed to it.
—Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German Poet, Writer
Revolution is not a onetime event.
—Audre Lorde (1934–92) American Poet, Activist
One revolution is just like one cocktail, it just gets you organized for the next.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
I was probably the only revolutionary referred to as cute.
—Abbie Hoffman (1936–89) American Political Activist, Anarchist
In a revolution, as in a novel, the most difficult part to invent is the end.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
In revolutions the occasions may be trifling but great interests are at stake.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Revolutions are like the most noxious dung-heaps, which bring into life the noblest vegetables.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Revolutionary politics, revolutionary art, and oh, the revolutionary mind, is the dullest thing on earth. When we open a “revolutionary” review, or read a “revolutionary” speech, we yawn our heads off. It is true, there is nothing else. Everything is correctly, monotonously, dishearteningly “revolutionary.” What a stupid word! What a stale fuss!
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) English Novelist, Painter, Critic
It is far more easy to pull down than to build up, and to destroy than to preserve. Revolutions have on this account been falsely supposed to be fertile of great talent; as the dregs rise to the top during a fermentation, and the lightest things are carried highest by the whirlwind.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist