Insurrection of thought always precedes insurrection of arms.
—Wendell Phillips, 1859Quotes
If not us, who? If not now, when?
—Czech slogan, 1989Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny, they have only shifted it to another shoulder.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1871All 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, 1977To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.
—Pope Leo XIII, 1885Who draws his sword against his prince must throw away the scabbard.
—James Howell, 1659No 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, 1851There 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, 1665