quotations about revolution
History is a relay of revolutions.
SAUL ALINSKY
Rules for Radicals
Revolution is the industry of young men.
CRAIG JOHNSON
The Cold Dish
They never fail who die
In a great cause: the block may soak their gore:
Their heads may sodden in the sun; their limbs
Be strung to city gates and castle walls--
But still their Spirit walks abroad. Though years
Elapse, and others share as dark a doom,
They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts
Which overpower all others, and conduct
The world at last to Freedom.
LORD BYRON
Marino Faliero
Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt
You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Dispossessed
You can bump and grind.
Feeling fine.
You can twist and shout.
Knock yourself out, but you won't fool the children of the revolution.
VIOLENT FEMMES
"Children of the Revolution"
Revolution is our obligation: our hope of evolution.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Dispossessed
If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution.
EMMA GOLDMAN
attributed, Psalms of Anarchy
Revolutionary practice in any field of human existence develops by itself if one comprehends the contradictions in every new process; it consists in siding with those forces which act in the direction of progressive development.
WILHELM REICH
The Mass Psychology of Fascism
There's no justice in revolutions, whose spoils are divided up by the Fates over the dead bodies of the freedom fighters who held out until the final hour.
AHLEM MOSTEGHANEMI
The Dust of Promises
That is how revolutions are created. You can take this to the bank. It cannot be a state where the rich mate on behalf of the poor, they eat on behalf of the poor, drink on behalf of the poor...
MBUTU KARIUKI
"Kenya: Jobless Graduates, Dropouts Living in the Ruins of Broken Dreams", All Africa, February 20, 2016
As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected ... before a drop of blood was shed.
JOHN ADAMS
letter to Thomas Jefferson, August 24, 1815
Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.
VLADIMIR LENIN
"Dogmatism and Freedom of Criticism", What Is To Be Done?
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
THOMAS PAINE
Common Sense
Revolution, my dear prince, is not the substitution of immoral for moral, or of illegitimate for legitimate violence; it is simply the pitting of power against power, where the issue is freedom for the winners and enslavement of the rest.
JOHN GARDNER
Grendel
There is no final one; revolutions are infinite.
YEVGENY ZAMYATIN
We
Revolutions are messy--even revolutions driven by the haves versus the have-nots; even revolutions fighting for change in board rooms and institutions versus in the streets. Revolutions are messy even if the intentions of the revolutionaries are noble and positive. How can we prepare ourselves for the messiness? What changes should we brace ourselves for? And what unintended consequences or unforeseen pitfalls should we look out for?
SHARNA GOLDSEKER & MICHAEL MOODY
"Show Me the Impact", Stanford Social Innovation Review, November 13, 2017
The new revolutions are signalling an end of a long era equivalent to thousands of years. They are beyond just a merry-go-round of political personalities, they will become the new politics.
JOSE MA. MONTELIBANO
"The New Revolutions", Inquirer, February 12, 2016
If we behave like those on the other side, then we are the other side. Instead of changing the world, all we'll achieve is a reflection of the one we want to destroy.
JEAN GENET
The Balcony
Revolutions are only a radical improvement when the masses are alert and know how to chuck out their leaders as soon as the latter have done their job.
J. NEWSINGER
Orwell's Politics