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Revolution Quotes

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Revolution Quotes

“power is not a thing to be owned. But if you believe that it is such a thing, losing it becomes a possibility to fear. That fear, I think, is one reason for the dark projections of a catastrophic future that are so widespread, in our dual society. The present powerful, being committed to polarization, expect that any new deal will overturn the one that set them in authority; that the last shall be first and the first last, role reversal everywhere, men as slaves, women as masters, in a revolution of contradiction.”

“Men without hope, resigned to despair and oppression, do not make revolutions. It is when expectation replaces submission, when despair is touched with the awareness of possibility, that the forces of human desire and the passion for justice are unloosed.”

Men Humans Desire Passion Force Justice Awareness Possibility Revolution Despair Expectations Oppression Touched Submission Without Hope Resigned

Book:Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy

Source: Make Gentle the Life of the World: The Vision of Robert F. Kennedy

“The only possibility in the United States for a humane society would be a revolution with Elvis Presley as leader.”

States Would Be United Leader United States Possibility Revolution Humane Humane Society

Author:Phil Ochs

“The task of a philosophy of photography is to reflect upon [the] possibility of freedom - and thus its significance - in a world dominated by apparatuses; to reflect upon the way in which, despite everything, it is possible for human beings to give significance to their lives in the face of the chance necessity of death. Such a philosophy is necessary because it is the only form of revolution left open to us.”

World Way Giving Humans Philosophy Faces Form Left Chance Human Beings Possibility Revolution Photography Tasks Despite Significance

Book:Towards a Philosophy of Photography

Source: Towards a Philosophy of Photography

“What shall we call an "immediate possibility"? In 1923 the situation in Germany was profoundly revolutionary, but what was lacking for a victorious revolution was a correct strategy.”

Situation Possibility Revolution Strategy Revolutionary Germany Lacking

Author:Leon Trotsky

“I like intersections. They're the nature of New York, and there's always the possibility that when you're at one you can meet someone new. Have I ever met anyone new at an intersection? No, but I like the idea of it. I like cities because if you're stopping on the corner to wait for a light to change, there's the possibility that you and somebody else can talk. And if you and that somebody else start to talk, then you can start to argue, and if you start to argue, you might start a revolution.”

Waiting Possibility Revolution Arguing

Author:Vito Acconci

“Any profession should have norms around the issue you raise. And, in the words of the great economic thinker Albert Hirschman, we all owe a measure of loyalty to professional norms. But when the norms seem unhelpful or unproductive, one needs to speak up - to activate voice. And in the extreme, if the profession and one's colleagues seem estranged from a thoughtfully selected course of action, you need to consider the possibility of exit. Of course, if you knowingly violate norms or laws, you need to be prepared to face the consequences - or to lead a revolution!”

Action Speak Economic Possibility Revolution Consequence Profession Loyalty Thinker Be Prepared Norm

Author:Howard Gardner

“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.”

People Thinking Art Sometimes Political Possibility Revolution Anarchy

Author:Joshua Clover

“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.”

Believe Political I Believe Possibility Revolution Skeptical

Author:Joshua Clover

“To realize the full possibilities of this economy, we must reach beyond our own borders, to shape the revolution that is tearing down barriers and building new networks among nations and individuals, and economies and cultures: globalization. It's the central reality of our time.”

Reality Culture Individual Nations Realizing Economy Possibility Building Revolution Shapes Borders Our Time Barriers Patriotic Globalization

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 2000-2001

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton, 2000-2001

“I therefore took this opportunity and also began to consider the possibility that the Earth moved. Although it seemed an absurd opinion, nevertheless, because I knew that others before me had been granted the liberty of imagining whatever circles they wished to represent the phenomena of the stars, I thought that I likewise would readily be allowed to test whether, by assuming some motion of the Earth's, more dependable representations than theirs could be found for the revolutions of the heavenly spheres.”

Source: On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres