quotations about revolution
Revolution is but thought carried into action.
EMMA GOLDMAN
Anarchism and Other Essays
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
History is a relay of revolutions.
SAUL ALINSKY
Rules for Radicals
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
Revolution has become a sort of violent and hollow routine.
WYNDHAM LEWIS
"Evening Dress", The Diabolical Principle
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
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
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
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
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"
There is no final one; revolutions are infinite.
YEVGENY ZAMYATIN
We
If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution.
EMMA GOLDMAN
attributed, Psalms of Anarchy
But the people did get it. They had lost something -- not exactly their fear, but their patience. Suddenly it seemed unbearable to go on accepting these systems, these portly little idiots in their blue suits, for another year, and then for another day, another hour. That special sort of impatience is the power-surge of revolution.
NEAL ASCHERSON
"1989: how it ended", Open Democracy, November 4, 2009
The revolutionary war is a war of the masses; it can be waged only by mobilizing the masses and relying on them.
MAO ZEDONG
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong
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?
If we would trace our descents, we should find all slaves to come from princes and all princes from slaves: But fortune has turned all things topsy-turvy, in a long story of revolutions.
WELLINS CALCOTT
Thoughts Moral and Divine
Look what's happening out in the streets
Got a revolution (got to revolution)
Hey, I'm dancing down the streets
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
"Volunteers"
Revolutions aren't led by well-meaning wimps. Revolutions are about seizing power. They are about righting wrongs. Revolutions demand fierce confrontation and, as Robespierre might say, sharply-administered accountability.
JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
"When Chivalry Fails: St. Bernard and the Machine", Counterpunch, February 5, 2016