Revolution Quotes - Page 5

• I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Moving, Men, Innovation

  "Democracy in America". Book by Alexis de Tocqueville. Volume II, Book Three, Chapter XXI, 1840.

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• More and more, revolution has found itself delivered into the hands of its bureaucrats and doctrinaires on the one hand, and to the enfeebled and bewildered masses on the other.

  Albert Camus

  Hands, Rebellious, Found

  Albert Camus (2012). “The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt”, p.216, Vintage

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• That these are our grievances which we have thus laid before his majesty, with that freedom of language and sentiment which becomes a free people claiming their rights as derived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift of their chief magistrate.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Rights, Law, People

  Thomas Jefferson, Jean M. Yarbrough (1963). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.16, Hackett Publishing

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• The Revolution has not yet succeeded. Comrades, you must carry on!

  Sun Yat-sen

  Last Words, Comrade

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• The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible

  Toni Cade Bambara

  Art, African American, Novelists

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• Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

  Mao Zedong

  Military, Gun, Chinese Revolution

  Speech at sixth plenary session of Central Committee, Communist Party, Yan'an, China, 6 Nov. 1938

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• The consequences of things are not always proportionate to the apparent magnitude of those events that have produced them. Thus the American Revolution, from which little was expected, produced much; but the French Revolution, from which much was expected, produced little.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Events, Littles, Rebellious

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.115

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• A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.

  Samuel Adams

  Patriotic, America, People

  Samuel Adams (1968). “The Writings of Samuel Adams: 1778-1802”

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• Revolution is not an event! It's a process

  Professor Griff

  Events, Process

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• Revolution is the larva of civilization.

  Victor Hugo

  Civilization

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• Revolutions never go backwards.

  Wendell Phillips

  Backwards

  "Speech". February 17, 1861.

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• If one girl with courage is a revolution, imagine what feats we can achieve together.

  Queen Rania of Jordan

  Girl, Together, Imagine

  "A queen's message to girls: More than tiaras and cupcakes". Open Letter by Queen Rania of Jordan, www.cnn.com. June 17, 2013.

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• What is a labour victory? I maintain that it is a twofold thing. Workers must gain economic advantage, but they must also gain revolutionary spirit, in order to achieve a complete victory. For workers to gain a few cents more a day, a few minutes less a day, and go back to work with the same psychology, the same attitude toward society is to achieve a temporary gain and not a lasting victory.

  Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

  Inspirational, Attitude, Order

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• A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  War, Ideas, Political

  "Journal of International Affairs" by Columbia University. School of International Affairs, (p. 94), 1976.

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• Revolution begins in putting on bright colors.

  Tennessee Williams

  Color, Bright Colors

  Tennessee Williams (1994). “Collected Stories”, p.129, New Directions Publishing

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• O sir, we should have fine times, indeed, if, to punish tyrants, it were only sufficient to assemble the people! Your arms, wherewith you could defend yourselves, are gone; and you have no longer an aristocratical, no longer a democratical spirit. Did you ever read of any revolution in a nation, brought about by the punishment of those in power, inflicted by those who had no power at all?

  Patrick Henry

  Should Have, Punishment, Tyrants

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• We used to think that revolutions are the cause of change. Actually it is the other way around: change prepares the ground for revolution.

  Eric Hoffer

  Thinking, Literature, Way

  "The Temper of Our Time". Book by Eric Hoffer, 1967.

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• The revolution you dream of is not ours. You don't want to change the world; you want to blow it up.

  Jean-Paul Sartre

  Dream, Blow, World

  Jean Paul Sartre (1949). “Three Plays: Tr. from the French by Lionel Abel”

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• 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

  Women, Struggle, Joy

  Germaine Greer (1970). “The female eunuch”, Macgibbon & Kee

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• ... in order to be a true revolutionary, you must understand love. Love, sacrifice, and death.

  Sonia Sanchez

  Love, Death, Sacrifice

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• I think people look at revolution too much in terms of power. I think revolution has to be seen more anthropologically, in terms of transitions from one mode of life to another. We have to see today in light of the transition, say, from hunting and gathering to agriculture, and from agriculture to industry, and from industry to post-industry. We're in an epoch transition.

  Grace Lee Boggs

  Thinking, Hunting, Light

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• We are going to inherit the earth . There is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie may blast and burn its own world before it finally leaves the stage of history. We Are not afraid of ruins. We who ploughed the prairies and built the cities can build again, only better next time. We carry a new world, here in our hearts. That world is growing this minute.

  Buenaventura Durruti

  Heart, Cities, History

  Interview with Pierre van Paassen, The Toronto Daily Star, July 24, 1936.

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• To achieve the mood of a warrior is not a simple matter. It is a revolution. To regard the lion and the water rats and our fellow men as equals is a magnificent act of a warrior's spirit. It takes power to do that.

  Carlos Castaneda

  Warrior, Simple, Men

  Carlos Castaneda (1991). “Journey To Ixtlan”, p.121, Simon and Schuster

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• Revolution is as unpredictable as an earthquake and as beautiful as spring. Its coming is always a surprise, but its nature should not be.

  Rebecca Solnit

  Beautiful, Spring, Earthquakes

  Rebecca Solnit (2014). “The Encyclopedia of Trouble and Spaciousness”, p.22, Trinity University Press

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• You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Freedom, Democracies Have, Order

  "Tremendous Trifles" by Gilbert K. Chesterton, Ch. 12, (p. 63), 1955.

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