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Quotes

The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.

—François Guizot, 1830

I have been ever of the opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.

—Benjamin Disraeli, 1844

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

—Erich Fromm, 1941

Revolution can never be forecast; it cannot be foretold; it comes of itself. Revolution is brewing and is bound to flare up.

—Vladimir Lenin, 1918

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

—Henry Clay, 1842

This 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, 1861

All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.

—Havelock Ellis, 1921

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, 1891

Revolutions are not about trifles, but they are produced by trifles. 

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC
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