The only justification of rebellion is success.
—Thomas B. Reed, 1878
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Quotes
Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1776It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.
—Dolores Ibárruri, 1936Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1871Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny, they have only shifted it to another shoulder.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903All 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, 1849The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.
—Erich Fromm, 1941Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino, 1957