Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.
—Wendell Phillips, 1859Quotes
The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution.
—Hannah Arendt, 1970Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino, 1957Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.
—Erich Fromm, 1941I began revolution with eighty-two men. If I had to do it again, I do it with ten or fifteen and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.
—Fidel Castro, 1959
Insurgents are like conquerors: they must go forward; the moment they are stopped, they are lost.
—Duke of Wellington, c. 1819Revolutions are not about trifles, but they are produced by trifles.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCThe main object of a revolution is the liberation of man, not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.
—Jean Genet, 1983To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.
—Pope Leo XIII, 1885There is a kind of revolution of so general a character that it changes the mental tastes as well as the fortunes of the world.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665If not us, who? If not now, when?
—Czech slogan, 1989It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
—Dolores Ibárruri, 1936