All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.
—Havelock Ellis, 1921Quotes
To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.
—Pope Leo XIII, 1885The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man, not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.
—Jean Genet, 1983Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962And 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, 1791The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.
—François Guizot, 1830All 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, 1977Who draws his sword against his prince must throw away the scabbard.
—James Howell, 1659If not us, who? If not now, when?
—Czech slogan, 1989The children of the revolution are always ungrateful, and the revolution must be grateful that it is so.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1983The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution.
—Hannah Arendt, 1970Revolution begins in putting on bright colors.
—Tennessee Williams, 1944Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino, 1957