Who draws his sword against his prince must throw away the scabbard.
—James Howell, 1659Quotes
Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man’s original virtue. It is through disobedience that progress has been made—through disobedience and through rebellion.
—Oscar Wilde, 1891Insurgents are like conquerors: they must go forward; the moment they are stopped, they are lost.
—Duke of Wellington, c. 1819Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962Revolutions never go backward.
—Thomas Skidmore, 1829The 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, 1970All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.
—Havelock Ellis, 1921All 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, 1849To 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, 1871Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1871Governments are not overthrown by the poor, who have no power, but by the rich—when they are insulted by their inferiors and cannot obtain justice.
—Dionysius of Halicarnassus, c. 20 BCRevolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino, 1957Revolutions are celebrated when they are no longer dangerous.
—Pierre Boulez, 1989