Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Revolution

The working of revolutions misleads me no more; it is as necessary to our race as its waves to the stream, that it may not be a stagnant marsh. Ever renewed in its forms, the genius of humanity blossoms.
Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) German Critic, Poet, Philosopher

Art is either plagiarism or revolution.
Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter

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

A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.
Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman

The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man,—you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind,—I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that.
Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher

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

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

Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor

Revolutions are not trifles, but spring from trifles.
Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar

The revolutionary spirit is mighty convenient in this, that it frees one from all scruples as regards ideas. Its hard absolute optimism is repulsive to my mind by the menace of fanaticism and intolerance it contains. No doubt one should smile at these things; but, imperfect Esthete, I am no better Philosopher. All claim to special righteousness awakens in me that scorn and anger from which a philosophical mind should be free.
Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist

Revolution is not a onetime event.
Audre Lorde (1934–92) American Poet, Activist

The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man. Unless he understands this, he does not grasp the essential meaning of his life.
Huey P. Newton (1942–89) American Political Activist

The surest guide to the correctness of the path that women take is joy in the struggle. Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.
Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist

Revolutions are like the most noxious dung-heaps, which bring into life the noblest vegetables.
Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France

If we glance at the most important revolutions in history, we see at once that the greatest number of these originated in the periodical revolutions of the human mind.
Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) German Philosopher, Linguist, Statesman

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

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

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

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

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

The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.
Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist

The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed.
Alexis Carrel (1873–1944) American Surgeon, Biologist

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

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

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the State.
Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author

Promise yourself to live your life as a revolution and not just a process of evolution.
Anthony J. D’Angelo

A revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, not every revolutionary situation leads to revolution.
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian Revolutionary Leader

No one can go on being a rebel too long without turning into an autocrat.
Lawrence Durrell (1912–90) British Biographer, Poet, Playwright, Novelist

A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he can’t sit on it.
William Ralph Inge (1860–1954) English Anglican Clergyman, Priest, Mystic

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