The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.

Revolution can never be forecast; it cannot be foretold; it comes of itself. Revolution is brewing and is bound to flare up.

To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.

Revolutions are celebrated when they are no longer dangerous. 

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.

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.

Those who give the first shock to a state are the first overwhelmed in its ruin; the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first mover; he only beats the water for another’s net.

An oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters.

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the state.

The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.

All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.