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, 1871Quotes
The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.
—François Guizot, 1830Revolutions are celebrated when they are no longer dangerous.
—Pierre Boulez, 1989Revolutions are not about trifles, but they are produced by trifles.
—Aristotle, c. 350 BCIt is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
—Dolores Ibárruri, 1936Revolution begins in putting on bright colors.
—Tennessee Williams, 1944This 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, 1861All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.
—Havelock Ellis, 1921If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.
—Thomas Paine, 1778Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1776An oppressed people are authorized, whenever they can, to rise and break their fetters.
—Henry Clay, 1842I 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
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.
—John Kenneth Galbraith, 1977