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

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.

If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.

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

The only justification of rebellion is success.

Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.

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.

To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.

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

The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over we realize this: that the human has been roughly handled, but that it has advanced.

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.

Rebellion is no less a sin than divination.

Revolutions never go backward.