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Quotes

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

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the state.

—Albert Camus, 1951

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

—John F. Kennedy, 1962

Revolution begins in putting on bright colors.

—Tennessee Williams, 1944

The only justification of rebellion is success.

—Thomas B. Reed, 1878

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

—Pope Leo XIII, 1885

Make the revolution a parent of settlement and not a nursery of future revolutions.

—Edmund Burke, 1790

The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.

—François Guizot, 1830

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

—Czech slogan, 1989

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.

—Victor Hugo, 1862

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

—Dolores Ibárruri, 1936

Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.

—Wendell Phillips, 1859

Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny, they have only shifted it to another shoulder.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1903