Revolutionary Quotes

• If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything.

  Malcolm X

  Love, Inspirational, Life

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• We believe in constitutional action in normal times; we believe in revolutionary action in exceptional times.

  James Connolly

  Believe, Normal, Action

  James Connolly, Peter Berresford-Ellis (1988). “James Connolly: Selected Writings”, p.45, Pluto Press

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• When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.

  Victor Hugo

  Wisdom, Political, Politics

  115 Copy quote

• A great revolution is never the fault of the people, but of the government.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Government, People, Faults

  "Conversations with Goethe". Book by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Johann Peter Eckermann, 1836.

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• 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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• A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery. It cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.

  Mao Zedong

  Party, Writing, Chinese Revolution

  Mao Zedong (2017). “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (The Little Red Book) & Other Works”, p.13, Lulu.com

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• These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it NOW, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

  Thomas Paine

  Love, Summer, Country

  The American Crisis, 19 Dec. 1776

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• Fascism is capitalism in decay.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Political, Decay, Politics

  219 Copy quote
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  The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.

  Che Guevara

  Fall, Revolutionary Leaders, Apples

  Ernesto Che Guevara, Ernesto Guevara (2000). “Che Guevara Speaks”, Pathfinder Press

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• I am a revolutionary; my life is dedicated to freeing the people.

  Mengistu Haile Mariam

  People, Life Is, Dedicated

  "Ethiopia, the United States and the Soviet Union". Book by David A. Korn, 1986.

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• 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.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Country, Freedom, 4th Of July

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1861

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• The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Freedom, War, Patriotic

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: Correspondence 1786-1787”, p.263, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Let the ruling classes tremble at a communist revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workingmen of all countries, unite!

  Karl Marx

  Country, Communication, Winning

  Karl Marx (2013). “The Communist Manifesto”, p.116, Simon and Schuster

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• In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

  George Orwell

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Wisdom

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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 true revolutionary is guided by great feelings of love.

  Che Guevara

  Love, Feelings, Great Feelings

  Ernesto Guevara, David Deutschmann (2003). “Che Guevara Reader: Writings on Politics & Revolution”, p.225, Ocean Press

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• The successful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.

  Erich Fromm

  Successful, Political, Nerd

  Erich Fromm (2013). “Escape from Freedom”, p.262, Open Road Media

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• Every day People straighten up the hair, why not the heart?

  Che Guevara

  Motivational, Passion, Heart

  817 Copy quote

• Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.

  Huey Newton

  Destiny, Giving, People

  247 Copy quote

• Bah, tombstones are only good for pigeons to sit on

  Vladimir Lenin

  Tombstone, Pigeons

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• I am not a communist and neither is the revolutionary movement.

  Fidel Castro

  Movement, Communist

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• I maintain that every civil rights bill in this country was passed for white people, not for black people.

  Stokely Carmichael

  Country, Hippie, Rights

  Black Power Address at UC Berkeley, delivered October 1966, Berkeley, CA

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• I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people.

  Huey Newton

  Hate, Thinking, Real Love

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• But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations ... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution.

  John Adams

  Religious, Real, War

  Letter to Hezekiah Niles, 13 Feb. 1818

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• Revolutionaries are more formalistic than conservatives.

  Italo Calvino

  Revolution

  17 Copy quote