Who draws his sword against his prince must throw away the scabbard.
—James Howell, 1659Quotes
Revolutions are not about trifles, but they are produced by trifles.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCAll revolutions devour their own children.
—Ernst Röhm, 1933Revolutions never go backward.
—Thomas Skidmore, 1829An oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters.
—Henry Clay, 1842If not us, who? If not now, when?
—Czech slogan, 1989Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.
—Wendell Phillips, 1859Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1871No 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, 1851To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.
—Pope Leo XIII, 1885The peasants alone are revolutionary, for they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant, outside the class system, is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays. For him there is no compromise, no possible coming to terms.
—Frantz Fanon, 1961Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino, 1957All men recognize the right of revolution, that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1849