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.

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

The surest guide to the correctness of the path that women take is joy in the struggle. Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.

The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over we realize this: that the human has been roughly handled, but that it has advanced.

Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.

It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.

In revolutions men fall and rise. Long before this war is over, much as you hear me praised now, you may hear me cursed and insulted.

Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.

The only justification of rebellion is success.

All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door. The violence of revolutions is the violence of men who charge into a vacuum.

All revolutions devour their own children.

The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man, not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.