Archive

Quotes

And 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, 1791

The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man, not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.

—Jean Genet, 1983

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

—Albert Camus, 1951

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

—James Howell, 1659

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

—Pope Leo XIII, 1885

All 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, 1849

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

—Benjamin Franklin, 1776

The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution.

—Hannah Arendt, 1970

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

In revolutions men fall and rise. Long before this war is over, much as you hear me praised now, you may hear me cursed and insulted.

—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1864

An oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters.

—Henry Clay, 1842

Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.

—Wendell Phillips, 1859

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

—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1983