Quotessence
Home / Topics / Revolution Quotes

Revolution Quotes

Browse 4097 quotes about Revolution.

Related topics

PeopleWorldIfsThinkingMenAmerican RevolutionRevolutionaryPoliticalWarCountryWayStatesHumansNeedsGovernmentFirstsFrench RevolutionSocialKnowsShouldIndustrial RevolutionWantHas BeensMeanRebelliousMayYearsIdeasMadeAmericaLibertyRealRebellionOrderWellsEndsKindDoeWholeLongMindTodayIndividualNationsTechnologyBelieveStruggleArtForceImportantLittlesCenturyPoliticsMovementAgeGivingCausesHandsStillsJusticeLooksEconomicFactsFightingLawMassRightsTwoActionBookClassFeelsSocial RevolutionViolentUnitedDemocracyDifferentMoralLastsTogetherHelpingMovingValuesBigsChildrenEarthHappensImpossibleMightSelfTurnsWould BeDoneLeaderPartyProgressSpiritViolenceCoursesEconomymore

Revolution Quotes

“The dominant, almost general, idea of revolution - particularly the Socialist idea - is that revolution is a violent change of social conditions through which one social class, the working class, becomes dominant over another class, the capitalist class. It is the conception of a purely physical change, and as such it involves only political scene shifting and institutional rearrangements”

IdeasPoliticalSocialClassConditionsRevolutionSceneViolentConceptionCapitalistSocialistDominantWorking ClassShiftingSocial ClassSocial Conditions
Book:Red Emma Speaks: An Emma Goldman Reader
Create image

“With the conception that the Revolution was only a means of securing political power, it was inevitable that all revolutionary values should be subordinated to the needs of the Socialist State; indeed, exploited to further the security of the newly acquired governmental power.”

NeedsShouldMeanStatesPoliticalValuesSecurityRevolutionInevitableRevolutionaryConceptionSocialistPolitical PowerMental Power
Book:My Disillusionment in Russia
Create image

“If democracy is ever to be threatened, it will not be by revolutionary groups burning government offices and occupying the broadcasting and newspaper offices of the world. It will come from disenchantment, cynicism and despair caused by the realisation that the New World Order means we are all to be managed and not represented.”

IfsWorldMeanGovernmentPoliticalOrderDemocracyGroupsRevolutionPoliticianDespairOfficeNewspapersManageBurningRevolutionaryRealisingNew WorldCynicismThreatenedRepresentingNew World OrderWorld OrderRealisationBroadcastingDisenchantment
Author:Tony Benn
Create image

“We need a growing middle class, not one that has been disappearing for 40 years. We need a vibrant one person-one vote democracy, not one which is dominated by billionaire campaign contributors. It's time for a political revolution. It's time to make our government work for all of us, and not just the 1%.”

NeedsYearsPersonsHas BeensGovernmentPoliticalClassDemocracyGrowingMiddleRevolutionVoteDisappearCampaignsMiddle ClassBillionaireContributorsPolitical RevolutionGovernment Work
Author:Bernie Sanders
Create image

“What does a political revolution look like? It means that 80 percent of the people vote in national elections, not 40 percent. It means that billionaires can't make unlimited campaign contributions and buy and sell politicians. It means that the U.S. government represents the needs of all the people, not just the 1 percent and their lobbyists.”

PeopleNeedsLooksMeanDoeGovernmentPoliticalRevolutionPoliticianPercentVoteElectionSellsCampaignsContributionUnlimitedBillionaireLobbyistsPolitical RevolutionCampaign Contributions
Author:Bernie Sanders
Create image

“Women in the Arab world have a rich history in their active participation in political change from the Algeria revolution against the French occupation to the most recent revolution in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya among other countries. The question is not their participation. Their question is the incorporation of women's voices fully in the new definitions of the countries where change has happened.”

WorldCountryPoliticalVoiceRichHappenedRevolutionDefinitionsActiveOccupationOther CountriesParticipationEgyptLibyaArab WorldPolitical ChangeTunisiaAlgeriaIncorporationActive Participation
Author:Zainab Salbi
Create image

“The characteristic mark of this age of dictators, wars and revolutions is its anticapitalistic bias. Most governments and political parties were eager to restrict the sphere of private initiative and free enterprise.”

WarGovernmentAgePoliticalPartyRevolutionMarkCharacteristicsEnterpriseSpheresInitiativeDictatorBiasPolitical PartiesFree Enterprise
Book:Socialism - An Economic and Sociological Analysis: The Economist
Create image

“We need the conflagration of Love to change the world, we need the fire of love to illuminate the society. The cold, insipid and complicated codes don't change anything, don't transform anything. All the best social projects and the best political principles are useless if they are not written with the fire of Love. The real revolution is the result of transformation, only the storms of Love can transform the individual and the society.”

IfsWorldNeedsRealPoliticalIndividualSocialResultsPrinciplesFireWrittenRevolutionColdProjectsTransformationComplicatedStormUselessCodeChanging The WorldDon't ChangeAll The BestInsipidFire Of LoveBest Political
Author:Samael Aun Weor
Create image

“At first, I felt bad judging an entire state by one county political official, but then I found out Morrison had also helped screen public school textbooks, a topic which is another chapter in my book. The Alamo is managed by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, a group whose members can claim a relative who was living in Texas during the revolution. The fight over mismanagement of the Alamo has been going on for years.”

YearsFirstsHas BeensBookStatesSchoolPoliticalFightingFoundFeltGroupsJudgingRevolutionMembersDaughterClaimsScreensOfficialsRepublicTexasRelativeChaptersTopicsPublic SchoolCountyTextbooksMismanagementAlamo
Author:Gail Collins
Create image

“The reality is we that have a corrupt campaign finance system which separates the American people's needs and desires from what Congress is doing. So to my mind, what we have got to do is wage a political revolution where millions of people have given up on the political process, stand up and fight back, demand the government that represents us and not just a handful of campaign contribution - contributors.”

PeopleNeedsMindRealityGovernmentPoliticalDesireFightingGivenProcessMillionsRevolutionDemandCongressCampaignsFinanceContributionHandfulGiven UpContributorsCampaign FinancePolitical RevolutionCampaign Contributions
Author:Bernie Sanders
Create image

“As the world transforms, moves closer together, jobs are displaced, and the world of work completely changes the way we live, the way we think. As that revolution goes on around us, it is going to pose political challenges of which immigration is one very obvious one, which are going to be extremely difficult to deal with. But it's like free trade. You know, in the end, if we go protectionist, we'll make a mistake.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWorldWayEndsTogetherJobsMovingPoliticalDifficultChallengesDealsMistakeRevolutionGoes OnTradeObviousImmigrationFree Trade
Author:Tony Blair
Create image

“I also think we need unconventional political action, and I increasingly think that there is a need for people of faith to be able to do the kind of things that people of faith did 40 years ago in the heat of the civil rights revolution. This is a moral issue of every bit as much importance requiring every bit as much sacrifice, courage, and energy as that crisis did.”

PeopleThinkingNeedsYearsKindAbleActionPoliticalEnergyBitsMoralIssuesRightsSacrificeRevolutionYears AgoImportanceCrisisCivil RightsHeatUnconventionalMoral IssuesPolitical Action
Author:Bill McKibben
Create image

“I am sorry to be so blunt, but I do not see much ambiguity here. [Barack] Obama was late to affirm the Egyptian revolution as a democratic movement, and even then he was eager to have installed those military leaders who were known for their practices of torture. And now he is quick to make allies with the Muslim Brotherhood for tactical reasons as well (though earlier that same administration stoked Islamophobic fear about that very political party).”

WellsReasonPoliticalPartyKnownLeaderPracticeMilitaryMovementRevolutionLateDemocraticSorryAdministrationBarackTortureAlliesBrotherhoodPolitical PartiesAmbiguityBluntEgyptianI Am SorryAm SorryTacticalMilitary LeaderMuslim BrotherhoodEgyptian Revolution
Author:Judith Butler
Create image

“[John Adams and Tomas Jefferson] shared experience in 1775 - 1776 in bringing about the separation from Britain and their service in Europe cemented a friendship that in the end withstood the most serious political and religious differences that one could imagine, especially their differences over the French Revolution. It was probably Jefferson's obsession with politeness and civility that kept the relationship from becoming irreparably broken.”

EndsPoliticalDifferencesReligiousImagineSeriousBrokenRevolutionBecomingEuropeSeparationObsessionBritainCivilityPolitenessFrench RevolutionShared ExperiencesTomas JeffersonReligious Differences
Author:Gordon S. Wood
Create image

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

InspirationalWarGovernmentPoliticalPoliticsPeacePresidentFreedomLibertyStruggleViolenceImpossibleRevolutionWise WordsPoliticianViolentResistancePeacefulInevitablePresidentialRevolutionaryThoughtfulProtestRebellionFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyProperty RightsAmerican RevolutionMaking PeacePeace WarPeace And JusticeCoexistenceIndustrial RevolutionPeace JusticeMilitarismMake Peace Not WarRevolutionary WarAchieving PeaceActs Of ViolencePeaceful CoexistenceSocial RevolutionBreaking SilenceViolence And PeacePeaceful ProtestViolence And WarChange Is InevitablePolitical RevolutionGovernment And PoliticsPolitical StruggleGovernment PoliticsProfiles In CouragePolitical ViolencePeaceful RevolutionViolent RevolutionInevitable DeathRevolutionary LeadersPeaceful Country
Author:John F. Kennedy
Create image

“Chairman Mao creatively applied Marxism-Leninism to every aspect of the Chinese revolution, and he had creative views on philosophy, political science, military science, literature and art, and so on. Unfortunately, in the evening of his life, particularly during the "Cultural Revolution", he made mistakes - and they were not minor ones - which brought many misfortunes upon our Party, our state and our people.”

PeopleArtMadeStatesPhilosophyPoliticalLiteratureViewsPartyMistakeCreativeMilitaryRevolutionAspectEveningChineseMisfortunesMinorsMarxismPolitical ScienceChairmanMade A MistakeMaoChairman MaoMarxism LeninismChinese RevolutionLiterature And Art
Author:Deng Xiaoping
Create image

“In the last couple of years before Chairman Mao's death he said that the "Cultural Revolution" had been wrong on two counts: one was "overthrowing all", and the other was waging a "full-scale civil war". These two counts alone show that the "Cultural Revolution" cannot be called correct. Chairman Mao's mistake was a political mistake, and not a small one.”

YearsSaidTwoWarShowsLastsPoliticalMistakeRevolutionCoupleScalesCivil WarChairmanMaoChairman Mao
Author:Deng Xiaoping
Create image

“As far as Bernie Sanders is concerned, he is a decent, honest person, and I supported him. What he means by socialism is New Deal Liberalism. In fact, his actual policies would not have been a great surprise to General Eisenhower. The fact that this is called a "political revolution" is a sign of how far to the right the political spectrum has shifted, mainly in the last 30 years since the neoliberal programs began to be instituted. What he was calling for was a restoration of something like New Deal Liberalism, which is a very good thing.”

YearsMeanPersonsHas BeensFactsLastsPoliticalDealsHonestPolicyRevolutionCallingConcernedProgramGood ThingsSurpriseVery GoodSocialismDecentLiberalismSpectrumRestorationNew DealHonest PersonPolitical SpectrumPolitical Revolution
Author:Noam Chomsky
Create image

“What is irreversible in the Arab world is this intellectual revolution, the awakening that we can get rid of dictators. That is here, and the people have this sentiment and this political power. They feel that they can do it, and it's still there. At the same time, we don't know what is going to happen. So to be very quick by saying, "Oh, revolutions and Arab Spring," and - you know, what I'm advocating is to take a cautious optimism as the starting point of our analysis and to look at what is happening.”

PeopleKnowsWorldFeelsLooksStillsHappensPoliticalCan DoRevolutionIntellectualSpringHappeningsOptimismStartingAwakeningAnalysisSentimentsDictatorCautiousStarting PointPolitical PowerAdvocatingIrreversibleArab WorldArab Spring
Author:Tariq Ramadan
Create image

“My feeling is that most political poetry is preaching to the choir, and that the people who are going to make the political changes in our lives are not the people who read poetry, unfortunately. Poetry not specifically aimed at political revolution, though, is beneficial in moving people toward that kind of action, as well as other kinds of action. A good poem makes me want to be active on as many fronts as possible.”

PeopleWantWellsKindFeelingsActionMovingPoliticalOur LivesFrontsRevolutionActivePoetry IsPreachingBeneficialChoirPolitical ChangePolitical RevolutionPreaching To The Choir
Author:John Ashbery
Create image

“I have a personal staff that helps me scour the internet and other media for the latest scientific peer-reviewed findings, the latest examples of climate-related extreme weather events, and the latest examples of progress. The world is in the midst of a sustainability revolution that has the scope of the industrial revolution, but with the speed of the digital revolution. That's not enough without new laws and the right kind of political leadership. But it does give us a base from which to build a movement that will save us from the most catastrophic consequences of the climate crisis.”

WorldGivingKindEnoughHelpingPoliticalProgressRevolutionInternetConsequenceCrisisSpeedHelp MeSustainabilityIndustrial Revolution
Author:Al Gore
Create image

“Fashion is not just about trends. It's about political history. You can trace it from the ancient Romans to probably until the '80s, and you can see defining moments that were due either to revolutions or changes in politics. At the end of the Roman era, there was this whole move against togas, because that was the signifier of the Roman Empire. In the same way, the '60s were a reaction against the '50s and so on. But now we've been feeding on a sort of cadaver. At the moment, we're just endlessly recycling the past.”

MomentsPastMovingPoliticalFashionRevolutionAncientRoman EmpireRecycling
Author:Daphne Guinness
Create image

“Our support for the Shah, the CIA coup in 1953 - has become infused into the Iranian political discourse. The regime that came to power in 1979 during the Iranian revolution actually defined itself as anti-American, and that's now a critical ingredient in the Iranian domestic political debate. That really is the source of our problems - the regime in Tehran continues to see itself as opposing the US. In their eyes, everything the US does is directed at them in a very malevolent way, and therefore they have to fight back against it.”

ProblemEyePoliticalFightingSupportRevolutionDebateCiaIranian
Author:Kenneth M. Pollack
Create image

“I don't want to be hubristic about art's possibilities. I don't think that art has a causal relationship to revolution. I do think it's a way people coordinate or orient their own often-inchoate experiences, sometimes willfully. With "The Masque of Anarchy," one of the things I note is that many political movements over time have made use of it as a way to orient themselves and to narrate what they were doing.”

PeopleThinkingArtSometimesPoliticalPossibilityRevolutionAnarchy
Author:Joshua Clover
Create image

“The most important quote about poetry and politics that I know is from a different situationist, Guy Debord. He was locked in a debate with the French Surrealists, many of whom by the 40s and 50s were part of the French communist party apparatus. Many Surrealists eventually argued for instrumentalizing art for political ends. Debord countered, "I don't want to put poetry in the service of revolution. I want to put revolution in the service of poetry".”

ArtImportantDifferentPoliticalGuyPartyRevolutionDebateCommunistSurrealist
Author:Joshua Clover
Create image

“Over the last few decades, I've grown more skeptical about a few things in which I used to have more faith. I believe as much in the necessity of, and the possibility of, revolution as I ever did. At the same time, I've grown more skeptical about poetry's role in it or art's contribution to it, and I've grown more skeptical about the university. Universities are big companies, and they're disciplinary in the way that any big institution is. I've found that the political militancy that the professoriate has mostly been fairly repressive of what I take to be necessary politics.”

BelievePoliticalI BelievePossibilityRevolutionSkeptical
Author:Joshua Clover
Create image

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.”

PeopleCountryGovernmentPoliticalPoliticsGrowsFreedomUnited StatesRevolutionExerciseInstitutionsRevolutionaryRebellionBelongingWearyUnited States Of America4th Of JulyProperty RightsIndependence DayAmerican GovernmentConstitution Of The United StatesInauguralConstitutional RightsUs ConstitutionIndependence Day Patriotic4th Of July InspirationalConstitutional GovernmentAmerican ConstitutionAmending The ConstitutionJuly 4Us Independence DayGrowing Weary
Author:Abraham Lincoln
Create image

“I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.”

MayWarPhilosophyGovernmentPoliticalEducationLibertyStudySonRevolutionMathematicsMathSensualMathematicalRevolutionaryMy SonAdamPatriotGeographyPolitical PhilosophyFreedom And LibertyFreedom LibertyProperty RightsAmerican RevolutionTotal WarTapestryNavalMath And ScienceRevolutionary WarNatural HistoryMathematics And ScienceAmerican LibertyMath EducationLiberty And JusticeMathematical LogicGovernment And SocietyPorcelainSocial HistoryNatural PhilosophyColonistsHistorical MilitaryAmerican JusticePolitics And WarUnnecessary WarMath And MusicStudying MathematicsRevolutionary Leaders
Book:The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
Create image