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Quotes

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

—James Howell, 1659

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

—Thomas Paine, 1778

Revolutions never go backward.

—Thomas Skidmore, 1829

Rebellion is no less a sin than divination.

—Book of Samuel, c. 550 BC

Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1871

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.

 

—Fidel Castro, 1959

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

—Erich Fromm, 1941

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

—Czech slogan, 1989

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.

—Michel de Montaigne, 1580

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

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

—Abraham Lincoln, 1861

The only justification of rebellion is success.

—Thomas B. Reed, 1878

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