The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
A great revolution is never the fault of the people, but of the government.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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
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 Author, Drama Critic
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
Revolutions are not made for export.
—Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) Russian Head of State, Political leader
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
All partisan movements add to the fullness of our understanding of society as a whole. They never detract; or, in any case, one must not allow them to do so. Experience adds to experience.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
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
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 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
Riots are the voices of the unheard.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
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
Revolutions are always verbose.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Revolutions never go backwards.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Lawyer, Orator
I have been ever of opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
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
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
Revolution today is taken for granted, and in consequence becomes rather dull.
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957) English Novelist, Painter, Critic
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
He that goeth about to persuade a multitude that they are not so well governed as they ought to be shall never want attentive and favorable hearers.
—Richard Hooker (1554–1600) English Anglican Theologian, Political Theorist
You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves.
—Joseph Stalin (1878–1953) Soviet Leader
Whether a revolutions succeeds or fails people of great hearts will always be sacrificed to it.
—Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German Poet, Writer
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
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
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
True revolutionaries are like God—they create the world in their own image. Our awesome responsibility to ourselves, to our children, and to the future is to create ourselves in the image of goodness, because the future depends on the nobility of our imaginings.
—Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1934–2002) American Writer, Essayist, Critic
In this Revolution no plans have been written for retreat.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
No one makes a revolution by himself; and there are some revolutions which humanity accomplishes without quite knowing how, because it is everybody who takes them in hand.
—George Sand (1804–76) French Novelist, Dramatist
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