quotations about revolution
Revolution is the industry of young men.
CRAIG JOHNSON
The Cold Dish
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
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"
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
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
Revolution has become a sort of violent and hollow routine.
WYNDHAM LEWIS
"Evening Dress", The Diabolical Principle
If we behave like those on the other side, then we are the other side. Instead of changing the world, all we'll achieve is a reflection of the one we want to destroy.
JEAN GENET
The Balcony
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
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
If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution.
EMMA GOLDMAN
attributed, Psalms of Anarchy
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
Revolution is our obligation: our hope of evolution.
URSULA K. LE GUIN
The Dispossessed
It is far more easy to pull down, than to build up, and to destroy, than to preserve. Revolutions have on this account been falsely supposed to be fertile of great talent; as the dregs rise to the top, during a fermentation, and the lightest things are carried highest by the whirlwind. And the practice of this proposition bears out the theory; for demagogues have succeeded tolerably well in making ruins; but the moment they begin to build anew from the materials that they have overthrown, they have often been uselessly employed with regard to others, and more often dangerously with regard to themselves.
CHARLES CALEB COLTON
Lacon
That is how revolutions are created. You can take this to the bank. It cannot be a state where the rich mate on behalf of the poor, they eat on behalf of the poor, drink on behalf of the poor...
MBUTU KARIUKI
"Kenya: Jobless Graduates, Dropouts Living in the Ruins of Broken Dreams", All Africa, February 20, 2016
There is no final one; revolutions are infinite.
YEVGENY ZAMYATIN
We
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
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
There's a grief that can't be spoken.
There's a pain goes on and on.
Empty chairs at empty tables
Now my friends are dead and gone.
Here they talked of revolution.
Here it was they lit the flame.
Here they sang about "tomorrow"
And tomorrow never came.
HERBERT KRETZMER
"Empty Chairs at Empty Tables", Les Misérables
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