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Quotes

Rebellion is no less a sin than divination.

—Book of Samuel, c. 550 BC

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.

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

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

—James Howell, 1659

An oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters.

—Henry Clay, 1842

Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny, they have only shifted it to another shoulder.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1903

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.

—Oscar Wilde, 1891

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.

—Henry David Thoreau, 1849

I have been ever of the opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.

—Benjamin Disraeli, 1844

Revolutions are celebrated when they are no longer dangerous. 

—Pierre Boulez, 1989

The only justification of rebellion is success.

—Thomas B. Reed, 1878

The 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, 1961

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

—Havelock Ellis, 1921

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.

 

—Fidel Castro, 1959