Every revolution evaporates and leaves behind only the slime of a new bureaucracy.
—Franz Kafka (1883–1924) Austrian Novelist, Short Story Writer
Revolution, in order to be creative, cannot do without either a moral or metaphysical rule to balance the insanity of history.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.
—Abbie Hoffman (1936–89) American Political Activist, Anarchist
The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man. Unless he understands this, he does not grasp the essential meaning of his life.
—Huey P. Newton (1942–89) American Political Activist
Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit.
—Abbie Hoffman (1936–89) American Political Activist, Anarchist
Political convulsions, like geological upheavings, usher in new epochs of the world’s progress.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Social Activist, Lawyer, Orator
The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.
—Che Guevara (1928–67) Argentine-Cuban Revolutionary
Let me say, at the risk of seeming ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.
—Che Guevara (1928–67) Argentine-Cuban Revolutionary
Revolutions are always verbose.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
You can jail a Revolutionary, but you can’t jail the Revolution.
—Huey P. Newton (1942–89) American Political Activist
Too long denial of guaranteed right is sure to lead to revolution — bloody revolution, where suffering must fall upon the innocent as well as the guilty.
—Ulysses S. Grant (1822–85) American Head of State, Military Leader
Great revolutions are the work rather of principles than of bayonets, and are achieved first in the moral, and afterwards in the material sphere.
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) Italian Philosopher, Politician, Political Activist, Journalist
Those who give the first shock to a state are naturally the first to be overwhelmed in its ruin. The fruits of public commotion are seldom enjoyed by the man who was the first to set it a-going; he only troubles the water for another’s net.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
The surest guide to the correctness of the path that women take is joy in the struggle. Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.
—Germaine Greer (b.1939) Australia Academic, Journalist, Scholar, Writer
At twenty a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world. When he is seventy he still wants to reform the world, but he know he can’t.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Lawyer
History teaches us that the great revolutions aren’t started by people who are utterly down and out, without hope and vision. They take place when people begin to live a little better—and when they see how much yet remains to be achieved.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
In perpetrating a revolution, there are two requirements: someone or something to revolt against and someone to actually show up and do the revolting. Dress is usually casual and both parties may be flexible about time and place, but if either faction fails to attend, the whole enterprise is likely to come off badly.
—Woody Allen (b.1935) American Film Actor, Director
He that goeth about to persuade a multitude that they are not so well governed as they ought to be shall never want attentive and favorable hearers.
—Richard Hooker (1554–1600) English Anglican Theologian, Political Theorist
The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over we realize this: that the human race has been roughly handled, but that it has advanced.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood.
—John Mason Brown (1900–69) American Columnist, Journalist, Author
Insurrection is an art, and like all arts has its own laws.
—Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Russian Marxist Revolutionary
Art is either plagiarism or revolution.
—Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist Painter
It’s not the work which kills people, it’s the worry. It’s not the revolution that destroys machinery it’s the friction.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Protestant Clergyman, Social Reformer, Abolitionist
Write on my gravestone: “Infidel, Traitor.”–infidel to every church that compromises with wrong; traitor to every government that oppresses the people.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Social Activist, Lawyer, Orator
Revolutions are not made, they come. A revolution is as natural a growth as an oak. It comes out of the past. Its foundations are laid far back.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Social Activist, Lawyer, Orator
The most heroic word in all languages is revolution.
—Eugene V. Debs (1855–1926) American Socialist, Union Leader
Too many so-called leaders of the movement have been made into celebrities and their revolutionary fervor destroyed by mass media. They become Hollywood objects and lose identification with the real issues. The task is to transform society; only the people can do that
—Huey P. Newton (1942–89) American Political Activist
To be a revolutionary you have to be a human being. You have to care about people who have no power.
—Jane Fonda (b.1937) American Actress, Political Activist
A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
I wouldn’t have turned out the way I was if I didn’t have all those old-fashioned values to rebel against.
—Madonna (b.1958) American Pop Singer, Actress
Revolutions never go backwards.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Social Activist, Lawyer, Orator
A man may build himself a throne of bayonets, but he can’t sit on it.
—William Ralph Inge (1860–1954) English Anglican Clergyman, Priest, Mystic
A revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, not every revolutionary situation leads to revolution.
—Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian Revolutionary Leader
Revolutions are not made by men in spectacles.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Revolutions are not made; they come.
—Wendell Phillips (1811–84) American Abolitionist, Social Activist, Lawyer, Orator
The Negro revolution is controlled by foxy white liberals, by the Government itself. But the Black Revolution is controlled only by God.
—Malcolm X (1925–65) American Civil Rights Leader
Revolutionaries are more formalistic than conservatives.
—Italo Calvino (1923–85) Italian Journalist, Short Story Writer, Novelist, Essayist
Revolutions are not made for export.
—Nikita Khrushchev (1894–1971) Russian Head of State, Political leader
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 (1804–76) French Novelist, Dramatist