The only justification of rebellion is success.
—Thomas B. Reed, 1878Quotes
The children of the revolution are always ungrateful, and the revolution must be grateful that it is so.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1983An oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters.
—Henry Clay, 1842Revolutions are not about trifles, but they are produced by trifles.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCEvery revolution by force only puts more violent means of enslavement into the hands of the persons in power.
—Leo Tolstoy, 1893This 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, 1861Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962All men recognize the right of revolution, that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable.
—Henry David Thoreau, 1849It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
—Dolores Ibárruri, 1936If not us, who? If not now, when?
—Czech slogan, 1989Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1776The 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, 1862Revolution begins in putting on bright colors.
—Tennessee Williams, 1944