Who draws his sword against his prince must throw away the scabbard.

If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.

Revolutions never go backward.

Rebellion is no less a sin than divination.

Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.

I 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.

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

If not us, who? If not now, when?

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.

Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made—through disobedience and through rebellion.

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.

The only justification of rebellion is success.

To escape its wretched lot, the populace has three ways, two imaginary and one real. The first two are the rum shop and the church; the third is the social revolution.