Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino, 1957Quotes
There is a kind of revolution of so general a character that it changes the mental tastes as well as the fortunes of the world.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665Insurgents are like conquerors: they must go forward; the moment they are stopped, they are lost.
—Duke of Wellington, c. 1819Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.
—Wendell Phillips, 1859If not us, who? If not now, when?
—Czech slogan, 1989I 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
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, 1871If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.
—Thomas Paine, 1778Make the revolution a parent of settlement and not a nursery of future revolutions.
—Edmund Burke, 1790Revolution can never be forecast; it cannot be foretold; it comes of itself. Revolution is brewing and is bound to flare up.
—Vladimir Lenin, 1918Revolutions are always verbose.
—Leon Trotsky, 1933The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.
—François Guizot, 1830The surest guide to the correctness of the path that women take is joy in the struggle. Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.
—Germaine Greer, 1970