quotations about revolution
Resistance to improvement contradicts the noblest instincts of the race. It begets its opposite. The fanaticism of reform is only the raging of the accumulated waters caused by the obstructions which an ultra conservatism has thrown across the stream of progress; and revolution itself is but the sudden overwhelming and sweeping away of impediments that should have been seasonably removed.
HORACE MANN
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Thoughts
Revolution has become a sort of violent and hollow routine.
WYNDHAM LEWIS
"Evening Dress", The Diabolical Principle
Revolution is our obligation: our hope of evolution.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Dispossessed
There is no final one; revolutions are infinite.
YEVGENY ZAMYATIN
We
Look at the American Revolution in 1776. That revolution was for what? For land. Why did they want land? Independence. How was it carried out? Bloodshed. Number one, it was based on land, the basis of independence. And the only way they could get it was bloodshed. The French Revolution -- what was it based on? The land-less against the landlord. What was it for? Land. How did they get it? Bloodshed. Was no love lost; was no compromise; was no negotiation. I'm telling you, you don't know what a revolution is. 'Cause when you find out what it is, you'll get back in the alley; you'll get out of the way. The Russian Revolution -- what was it based on? Land. The land-less against the landlord. How did they bring it about? Bloodshed. You haven't got a revolution that doesn't involve bloodshed. And you're afraid to bleed. I said, you're afraid to bleed.
MALCOLM X
Message to the Grass Roots, November 10, 1963
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 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
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
History is a relay of revolutions.
SAUL ALINSKY
Rules for Radicals
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
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
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
If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution.
EMMA GOLDMAN
attributed, Psalms of Anarchy
We live in troubled times
From the ghettos to an empty suburban home
We live in troubled times
And I'm 99 percent sure that something's wrong
It's all wrong
It's 99 revolutions tonight
GREEN DAY
"99 Revolutions"
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
Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.
VLADIMIR LENIN
"Dogmatism and Freedom of Criticism", What Is To Be Done?
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"
Look what's happening out in the streets
Got a revolution (got to revolution)
Hey, I'm dancing down the streets
JEFFERSON AIRPLANE
"Volunteers"
Failed revolutions are better than no revolutions.
RICHARD SCHECHNER
"Authorities want to inoculate people against art", Times of India, February 6, 2016
It cannot be sufficiently emphasized that revolution is in vain unless inspired by its ultimate ideal. Revolutionary methods must be in tune with revolutionary aims. The means used to further the revolution must harmonize with its purposes. In short, the ethical values which the revolution is to establish in the new society must be initiated with the revolutionary activities of the so-called transitional period. The latter can serve as a real and dependable bridge to the better life only if built of the same material as the life to be achieved.
EMMA GOLDMAN
My Disillusionment with Russia