All revolutions devour their own children.
—Ernst Röhm, 1933Quotes
Who draws his sword against his prince must throw away the scabbard.
—James Howell, 1659Insurgents are like conquerors: they must go forward; the moment they are stopped, they are lost.
—Duke of Wellington, c. 1819The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man, not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.
—Jean Genet, 1983Every revolution by force only puts more violent means of enslavement into the hands of the persons in power.
—Leo Tolstoy, 1893To escape its wretched lot, the populace has three ways, two imaginary and one real. The first two are the rum shop and the church; the third is the social revolution.
—Mikhail Bakunin, 1871Revolutions never go backward.
—Thomas Skidmore, 1829Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny, they have only shifted it to another shoulder.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1871The only justification of rebellion is success.
—Thomas B. Reed, 1878An oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters.
—Henry Clay, 1842To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.
—Pope Leo XIII, 1885If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.
—Thomas Paine, 1778