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Quotes

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

—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1983

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

—Dolores Ibárruri, 1936

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

—Benjamin Franklin, 1776

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

—Vladimir Lenin, 1918

There is a kind of revolution of so general a character that it changes the mental tastes as well as the fortunes of the world.

—La Rochefoucauld, 1665

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

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

—Czech slogan, 1989

Revolutions never go backward.

—Thomas Skidmore, 1829

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

—John F. Kennedy, 1962

The only justification of rebellion is success.

—Thomas B. Reed, 1878

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

—Erich Fromm, 1941

Revolutions are not about trifles, but they are produced by trifles. 

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC