Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.
—Wendell Phillips, 1859Quotes
And then, sir, there is this consideration: that if the abuse be enormous, nature will rise up and, claiming her original rights, overturn a corrupt political system.
—Samuel Johnson, 1791The only justification of rebellion is success.
—Thomas B. Reed, 1878Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.
—John F. Kennedy, 1962Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 63 BCAll 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, 1849Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino, 1957There is a kind of revolution of so general a character that it changes the mental tastes as well as the fortunes of the world.
—La Rochefoucauld, 1665To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.
—Pope Leo XIII, 1885