quotations about revolution
We have it in our power to begin the world over again.
THOMAS PAINE
Common Sense
Revolutionaries do not make revolutions! The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and when they can pick it up.
HANNAH ARENDT
"Thoughts on Politics and Revolution: A Commentary", Crises of the Republic
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
Report on an investigation of the peasant movement in Hunan, March 1927
Weak men, indeed, are prejudiced towards rules and systems in life and government; and think if these are gone all is gone: but a man of a great soul and free spirit delights in the noble experiment of blowing up systems and dissolving governments, to mould them anew upon other principles and in another shape.
GEORGE BERKELEY
Alciphron; or, The Minute Philosopher in Seven Dialogues
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
Sometimes, the greatest revolutions are the quietest.
MICHAEL SUDMEIER
"Tech Innovations Inspiring Boots & Bindings", Transworld Business, January 30, 2016
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 revolution has overthrown the monarchy, true! But perhaps this means that the revolution simply has driven the skin disease inside the organism.
MAXIM GORKY
Untimely Thoughts
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"
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 are the periods of history when individuals count most.
NORMAN MAILER
Barbary Shore
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
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
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
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 sometimes necessary, even sometimes glorious, but only rarely successful in effecting essential permanent change. Anarchy, a culture without a government, without an established order, is never safe or productive for the general populace.
RICHARD DELONG
"Is establishment a poison pill", Chillicothe Gazette, February 12, 2016
That humanity and sincerity which dispose men to resist injustice and tyranny render them unfit to cope with the cunning and power of those who are opposed to them. The friends of liberty trust to the professions of others because they are themselves sincere, and endeavour to secure the public good with the least possible hurt to its enemies, who have no regard to anything but their own unprincipled ends, and stick at nothing to accomplish them.
WILLIAM HAZLITT
Characters of Shakespeare's Plays
Failed revolutions are better than no revolutions.
RICHARD SCHECHNER
"Authorities want to inoculate people against art", Times of India, February 6, 2016
Some men hope for revolution but when you revolt and set up your new government you find your new government is still the same old Papa, he has only put on a cardboard mask.
CHARLES BUKOWSKI
Notes of a Dirty Old Man
Human; Not Human
Freedom; Not Freedm
Change; No Change
Revolution!
JEAN MICHEL JARRE
"Revolution, Revolutions"