Revolution Quotes - Page 11

• The world needs a revolution led by women.

  Desmond Tutu

  Needs, World

  The David A. Morse Lecture: A Conversation with Desmond Tutu, www.cfr.org. March 8, 2010.

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• We need to undergo a very radical revolution in values. And we need to think about what it's like to have become so materialistic that we think having a good job, and consuming like crazy to compensate for the dehumanization of the job, is living like a human being.

  Grace Lee Boggs

  Jobs, Crazy, Thinking

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Insurrection. An unsuccessful revolution; disaffection's failure to substitute misrule for bad government.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Success, Failure, Government

  Ambrose Bierce (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)”, p.2436, Delphi Classics

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• Since, then, there is no objection to the mobility of the Earth, I think it must now be considered whether several motions are appropriate for it, so that it can be regarded as one of the wandering stars. For the fact that it is not the centre of all revolutions is made clear by the apparent irregular motion of the wandering stars, and their variable distances from the Earth, which cannot be understood in a circle having the same centre as the Earth.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Stars, Distance, Science

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1976). “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”, David & Charles Publishers

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• Trade is the natural enemy of all violent passions. Trade loves moderation, delights in compromise, and is most careful to avoid anger. It is patient, supple, and insinuating, only resorting to extreme measures in cases of absolute necessity. Trade makes men independent of one another and gives them a high idea of their personal importance: it leads them to want to manage their own affairs and teaches them to succeed therein. Hence it makes them inclined to liberty but disinclined to revolution.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Love, Passion, Independent

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

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• In crime the egoist has hitherto asserted himself and mocked at the sacred; the break with the sacred, or rather of the sacred, may become general. A revolution never returns, but an immense, reckless, shameless, conscienceless, proud—crime, doesn't it rumble in the distant thunder, and don't you see how the sky grows ominously silent and gloomy?

  Max Stirner

  Sky, May, Proud

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• You know how I always believe in the future. Without disorder, the revolution is impossible; knowing that, I did not lose hope, and I do not lose it now.

  Peter Kropotkin

  Believe, Knowing, Impossible

  Letter to a friend in November 1920. "Peter Kropotkin: From Prince to Rebel". Book by George Woodcock and Ivan Avakumović, p. 407, 1990.

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• I spend most of my time assuming the world is not ready for the technology revolution that will be happening to them soon.

  Eric Schmidt

  Technology, World, Assuming

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• The revolutionary despises public opinion. He despises and hates the existing social morality in all its manifestations. For him, morality is everything which contributes to the triumph of the revolution. Immoral and criminal is everything that stands in its way.

  Sergey Nechayev

  Hate, Triumph, Criminals

  "The Revolutionary Catechism" by Sergey Nechayev, www.marxists.org. 1869.

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• There are those, on the one hand, who hope to achieve the social revolution through the State by preserving and even extending most of its powers to be used for the revolution. And there are those like ourselves who see the State, both in its present form, in its very essence, and in whatever guise it might appear, an obstacle to the social revolution, the greatest hindrance to the birth of a society based on equality and liberty, as well as the historic means designed to prevent this blossoming.

  Peter Kropotkin

  Mean, Hands, Essence

  Peter Kropotkin, George Woodcock (1993). “Fugitive writings”, Black Rose Books Ltd

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• I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state; up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake.

  Thomas Paine

  Littles, Too Much, Wheels

  Thomas Paine, Bruce Kuklick (2000). “Paine: Political Writings”, p.54, Cambridge University Press

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• The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Love, Brother, Character

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Essays”, p.22, Xist Publishing

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• The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning.

  John F. Kennedy

  Land, Southern, Rising

  Speech to Congress on Urgent National Needs, delivered 25 May 1961, Washington, D.C.

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• I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-soaked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own.... And if unfortunately their revolution must be of the violent type because the "haves" refuse to share with the "have-nots" by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don't want and above all don't want crammed down their throats by Americans.

  Michael Parenti

  Believe, Dirty, America

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• The first question that offers itself is, whether the general form and aspect of the government be strictly republican? It is evident that no other form would be reconcileable with the genius of the people of America; with the fundamental principles of the revolution; or with that honourable determination which animates every votary of freedom, to rest all our political experiments on the capacity of mankind for self-government.

  James Madison

  Determination, Government, Self

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

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• The shot heard round the world.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Revolutionary War, Augusta National, April And Spring

  "Concord Hymn" l. 1 (1837)

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• In Europe, charters of liberty have been granted by power. America has set the example . . . of charters of power granted by liberty. This revolution in the practice of the world, may, with an honest praise, be pronounced the most triumphant epoch of its history, and the most consoling presage of its happiness.

  James Madison

  Freedom, Europe, Practice

  James Madison, David B. Mattern (1997). “James Madison's "Advice to My Country"”, p.20, University of Virginia Press

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• In every revolution there intrude, at the side of its true agents, men of a different stamp; some of them survivors of and devotees to past revolutions, without insight into the present movement, but preserving popular influence by their known honesty and courage, or by the sheer force of tradition; others mere brawlers, who, by dint of repeating year after year the same set of stereotyped declamations against the government of the day, have sneaked into the reputation of revolutionists of the first water They are an unavoidable evil: with time they are shaken off.

  Karl Marx

  Honesty, Past, Men

  Karl Marx, David McLellan (2000). “Karl Marx: Selected Writings”, p.594, Oxford University Press, USA

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• But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the way to a new American revolutiona peaceful revolution in which power was turned back to the peoplein which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed and made truly responsive. This can be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting as that first revolution almost 200 years agoand it can mean that just 5 years from now America will enter its third century as a young nation new in spirit, with all the vigor and the freshness with which it began its first century.

  Richard M. Nixon

  Peace, Mean, America

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• The revolutionary can have no friendship or attachment, except for those who have proved by their actions that they, like him, are dedicated to revolution.

  Sergey Nechayev

  Attachment, Action, Dedicated

  "The Revolutionary Catechism" by Sergey Nechayev, www.marxists.org. 1869.

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• The two revolutions, I mean the annual revolutions of the declination and of the centre of the Earth, are not completely equal; that is the return of the declination to its original value is slightly ahead of the period of the centre. Hence it necessarily follows that the equinoxes and solstices seem to anticipate their timing, not because the sphere of the fixed stars moves to the east, but rather the equatorial circle moves to the west, being at an angle to the plane of the ecliptic in proportion to the declination of the axis of the terrestrial globe.

  Nicolaus Copernicus

  Stars, Moving, Mean

  Nicolaus Copernicus (1976). “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”, David & Charles Publishers

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• The only form of revolution beneficial to the people is one which destroys the entire state to the roots and exterminates all the state traditions, institutions and classes…. Day and night [the revolutionary] must have but one thought, one aim – merciless destruction…for him morality is everything which contributes to the triumph of the revolution. Immoral and criminal is everything that stands in its way.

  Sergey Nechayev

  Night, Class, Roots

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• We are redefining and we are restating our socialism in terms of the scientific revolution

  Harold Wilson

  Eugenics, Socialism, Redefining

  Speech at Labour Party conference on October 01, 1963. "Labour Party Annual Conference Report, 1963", pp. 139-140, 1963.

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• There is a noticeable general difference between the sciences and mathematics on the one hand, and the humanities and social sciences on the other. It's a first approximation, but one that is real. In the former, the factors of integrity tend to dominate more over the factors of ideology. It's not that scientists are more honest people. It's just that nature is a harsh taskmaster. You can lie or distort the story of the French Revolution as long as you like, and nothing will happen. Propose a false theory in chemistry, and it'll be refuted tomorrow.

  Noam Chomsky

  Integrity, Real, Lying

  "Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent". Book by Robert F. Barsky, 1997.

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• The Revolutionist is a doomed man. He has no private interests, no affairs, sentiments, ties, property nor even a name of his own. His entire being is devoured by one purpose, one thought, one passion - the revolution. Heart and soul, not merely by word but by deed, he has severed every link with the social order and with the entire civilized world; with the laws, good manners, conventions, and morality of that world. He is its merciless enemy and continues to inhabit it with only one purpose - to destroy it.

  Sergey Nechayev

  Passion, Heart, Men

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