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.

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

The only justification of rebellion is success.

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

Revolutions never go backward.

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.

Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.

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.

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

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.

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

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

All revolutions devour their own children.