All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.
—Havelock Ellis, 1921Quotes
Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.
—Wendell Phillips, 1859Those 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, 1580Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.
—Benjamin Franklin, 1776The 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, 1961The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man, not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.
—Jean Genet, 1983All 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, 1977All revolutions devour their own children.
—Ernst Röhm, 1933The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative on the day after the revolution.
—Hannah Arendt, 1970