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.

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

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

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.

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

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

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

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.

Revolution can never be forecast; it cannot be foretold; it comes of itself. Revolution is brewing and is bound to flare up.

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

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

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.

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.