Archive

Quotes

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

—Hannah Arendt, 1970

Rebellion is no less a sin than divination.

—Book of Samuel, c. 550 BC

Revolutions never go backward.

—Thomas Skidmore, 1829

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

Revolutions are celebrated when they are no longer dangerous. 

—Pierre Boulez, 1989

If not us, who? If not now, when?

—Czech slogan, 1989

All revolutions devour their own children.

—Ernst Röhm, 1933

Governments 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 BC

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

—Ursula K. Le Guin, 1983

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, 1871

Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.

—Wendell Phillips, 1859

The 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

The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.

—Erich Fromm, 1941