Political Revolution Quotes

• Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Peace, Freedom

  Address on first anniversary of Alliance for Progress, 13 Mar. 1962

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• 

  The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Strength, Wisdom, Veterans Day

  Letter to William Stephens Smith, 13 Nov. 1787

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• The most radical revolutionary will become a conservative the day after the revolution.

  Hannah Arendt

  Memorable, Revolutionary Leaders, Politics

  New Yorker 12 Sept. 1970, p. 88

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• Families are struggling to put bread on the table, send their kids to college and take care of their basic needs. America needs a political revolution.

  Bernie Sanders

  Struggle, Kids, College

  FaceBook post by Bernie Sanders from Jun 24, 2015

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• What my campaign is about is a political revolution - millions of people standing up and saying, enough is enough. Our government belongs to all of us, and not just the hand full of billionaires.

  Bernie Sanders

  Government, Hands, People

  Bernie Sanders during Democratic debate at Drake University in Des Moines, time.com. November 16, 2015.

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• Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us.

  William O. Douglas

  Teaching, Rights In America, Freedom Of Speech

  "The One Un-American Act". William O. Douglas' speech to the Author's Guild Council in New York on receiving the 1951 Lauterbach Award, December 3, 1952.

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• All political revolutions, not affected by foreign conquest, originate in moral revolutions. The subversion of established institutions is merely one consequence of the previous subversion of established opinions.

  John Stuart Mill

  Moral, Opinion, Subversion

  John Stuart Mill (2009). “Dissertations and Discussions”, p.56, Cosimo, Inc.

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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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• Revolution, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Cynical, Democracy, Election

  Ambrose Bierce (2016). “The Devil's Dictionary: The Devil World”, p.186, 谷月社

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• We neither need a political revolution nor a religious revolution. What we need is an inner transformation in human beings.

  Jaggi Vasudev

  Life, Spiritual, Religious

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• Political revolutions aim to change political institutions in ways that those institutions themselves prohibit. Their success therefore necessitates the partial relinquishment of one set of institutions in favor of another, and in the interim, society is not fully governed by institutions at all

  Thomas Kuhn

  Favors, Way, Institutions

  Thomas S. Kuhn (2012). “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: 50th Anniversary Edition”, p.93, University of Chicago Press

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• 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%.

  Bernie Sanders

  Years, Class, Government

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• If you are asking me what the individual can do right now, in a political sense, I'd have to say he can't do all that much. Speaking for myself, I am more concerned with the transformation of the individual, which to me is much more important than the so-called political revolution.

  William S. Burroughs

  Important, Asking, Transformation

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• If the masses started to accept UFOs, it would profoundly affect their attitude towards life, politics, everything. It would threaten the status quo. Whenever people come to realize that there are larger considerations than their own petty lives, they are ripe to make radical changes on a personal level, which would eventually lead to a political revolution in society as a whole

  John Lennon

  Attitude, People, Radical Change

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• Of our political revolution of '76, we all are justly proud. It has given us a degree of political freedom, far exceeding that of any other nation of the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long mooted problem, as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of mankind.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Men, Long, Liberty

  Abraham Lincoln (2012). “Lincoln Speeches”, p.52, Penguin

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• I am extraordinarily proud of the campaign that we ran. The issues that we raised, the fact that we got 13 million Americans to vote for a political revolution.

  Bernie Sanders

  Issues, Campaigns, Proud

  Source: www.realclearpolitics.com

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• What America needs is a political revolution.

  Walker Evans

  America, Needs, Political

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• We have got to change the political culture in America. We need a political revolution. That means we are working on politics not just three weeks before an election but 365 days a year.

  Bernie Sanders

  Mean, Years, America

  Interview with Ruth Conniff, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. December 1, 2005.

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• Everyone can have health care. Everyone can earn a living wage. We can educate all our kids - well. But none of that happens unless there's a political revolution. And it's not going to happen unless we deal with corporate control of the media.

  Bernie Sanders

  Kids, Media, Care

  Interview with Ruth Conniff, www.sharedhost.progressive.org. December 1, 2005.

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• 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.

  John Ashbery

  Moving, People, Feelings

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• 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.

  Noam Chomsky

  Mean, Years, Restoration

  Source: pennpoliticalreview.org

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• In America, the economy is simply nowhere near bad enough to serve as the base of any kind of serious political revolution.

  Kevin Drum

  America, Serious, Kind

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• 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.

  Bernie Sanders

  Fighting, Reality, Government

  Bernie Sanders during Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate at the University of New Hampshire in Durham, New Hampshire, www.nytimes.com. February 5, 2016.

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• The old terms must be invented with new meaning and given new explanations. Liberty, equality, and fraternity are no longer what they were in the days of the late-lamented guillotine. This is what the politicians will not understand; and that is why I hate them. They want only their own special revolutions- external revolutions, political revolutions, etc. But that is only dabbling. What is really needed is a revolution of the human spirit.

  Henrik Ibsen

  Hate, Liberty, Special

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• The social revolution is seriously compromised if it comes through a political revolution.

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  Social, Ifs, Political

  Pierre-Joseph Proudhon (2011). “Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology”, p.20, AK Press

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