If there was ever a just war since the world began, it is this in which America is now engaged.
—Thomas Paine, 1778Quotes
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, 1977The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.
—François Guizot, 1830The peasants alone are revolutionary, for they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant, outside the class system, is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays. For him there is no compromise, no possible coming to terms.
—Frantz Fanon, 1961Rebellion is no less a sin than divination.
—Book of Samuel, c. 550 BCRevolutions are celebrated when they are no longer dangerous.
—Pierre Boulez, 1989And 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 most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution.
—Hannah Arendt, 1970If not us, who? If not now, when?
—Czech slogan, 1989