Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.
—Wendell Phillips, 1859Quotes
No one makes a revolution by himself, and there are some revolutions which humanity accomplishes without quite knowing how, because it is everybody who takes them in hand.
—George Sand, 1851All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the state.
—Albert Camus, 1951The 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, 1961Make the revolution a parent of settlement and not a nursery of future revolutions.
—Edmund Burke, 1790Revolutions are celebrated when they are no longer dangerous.
—Pierre Boulez, 1989Revolutions never go backward.
—Thomas Skidmore, 1829Revolution begins in putting on bright colors.
—Tennessee Williams, 1944Those who give the first shock to a state are the first overwhelmed in its ruin; the fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by him who was the first mover; he only beats the water for another’s net.
—Michel de Montaigne, 1580