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Quotes

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

—Czech slogan, 1989

Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.

—Italo Calvino, 1957

Rebellion is no less a sin than divination.

—Book of Samuel, c. 550 BC

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

—Jean Genet, 1983

Revolutions are always verbose.

—Leon Trotsky, 1933

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

—Benjamin Franklin, 1776

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.

—Mikhail Bakunin, 1871

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

—John F. Kennedy, 1962

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

—Erich Fromm, 1941

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.

—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, c. 20 BC

The only justification of rebellion is success.

—Thomas B. Reed, 1878

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

—Dolores Ibárruri, 1936

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