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

Insurgents are like conquerors: they must go forward; the moment they are stopped, they are lost.

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.

Make the revolution a parent of settlement and not a nursery of future revolutions.

And then, sir, there is this consideration: that if the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up and, claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.

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

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.

No one makes a revolution by himself, and there are some revolutions which humanity accomplishes without quite knowing how, because it is everybody who takes them in hand.

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

Revolution begins in putting on bright colors.

Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.

Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.

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.