Insurgents are like conquerors: they must go forward; the moment they are stopped, they are lost.
—Duke of Wellington, c. 1819Quotes
All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.
—Havelock Ellis, 1921And 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.
—Samuel Johnson, 1791Every revolution by force only puts more violent means of enslavement into the hands of the persons in power.
—Leo Tolstoy, 1893Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1776Revolutions are not about trifles, but they are produced by trifles.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCRevolution begins in putting on bright colors.
—Tennessee Williams, 1944Disobedience, 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, 1891I have been ever of the opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.
—Benjamin Disraeli, 1844The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.
—François Guizot, 1830Revolutions never go backward.
—Thomas Skidmore, 1829This 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, 1861Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1871