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.

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.

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.

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

The children of the revolution are always ungrateful, and the revolution must be grateful that it is so.

All 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.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

All revolutions devour their own children.

The only justification of rebellion is success.

Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.

Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.

Governments are not overthrown by the poor, who have no power, but by the rich—when they are insulted by their inferiors and cannot obtain justice.

Revolutions are celebrated when they are no longer dangerous.