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Quotes

The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over we realize this: that the human has been roughly handled, but that it has advanced.

—Victor Hugo, 1862

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the state.

—Albert Camus, 1951

Every revolution by force only puts more violent means of enslavement into the hands of the persons in power.

—Leo Tolstoy, 1893

The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man, not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.

—Jean Genet, 1983

Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.

—Italo Calvino, 1957

Revolutions are always verbose.

—Leon Trotsky, 1933

In revolutions men fall and rise. Long before this war is over, much as you hear me praised now, you may hear me cursed and insulted.

—William Tecumseh Sherman, 1864

The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.

—François Guizot, 1830

Revolutions are not about trifles, but they are produced by trifles. 

—Aristotle, c. 350 BC
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