Profoundly inspirational revolution quotes will challenge the way you think, change the way you live and transform your whole life.
Famous Revolution Quotes
If you have the capacity to tremble with indignation every time that an injustice is committed in the world, then we are comrades. Che Guevara
Don’t fire unless fired upon, but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.
It is beyond the power of any man to make a revolution. Neither can it be brought about on any appointed date. It is brought about by special environments, social and economic. The function of an organized party is to utilize any such opportunity offered by these circumstances. Bhagat Singh
Don’t fire until you see the whites of their eyes!
Seek justice from tyrannical governments not with your hat in your hands but with a rifle in your fist. Emiliano Zapata
In the name of the great Jehova and the Continental Congress!
The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall. Che Guevara
I am satisfied that one active campaign burning two or three of their towns, will set everything to rights. John Pitcairn, British major, 1775
My sole ambition is to rid Mexico of the class that has oppressed her and given the people a chance to know what real liberty means. And if I could bring that about today by giving up my life, I would do it gladly. Pancho Villa
Yonder are the Hessians. They were bought for seven pounds and ten pence a man. Are you worth more? Prove it. Tonight the American flag floats from yonder hill or Molly Stark sleeps a widow! John Stark at the Battle of Bennington, 1777
It is true that liberty is precious; so precious that it must be carefully rationed. Vladimir Lenin
If you were lost for America, there is nobody who could keep the army and the revolution [going] for six months. Marquis de Lafayette to George Washington, 1777
There is such an equality among them that the officers have no authority. The privates are all generals, but not soldiers. General Montgomery on the Continental army
If there is not justice for the people, let there be no peace for the government. Emiliano Zapata
I dare say the men would fight very well if properly officered, although they are exceedingly dirty and nasty people. George Washington on his own army
When there is state there can be no freedom, but when there is freedom there will be no state. Vladimir Lenin
With regard to military discipline, I may safely say that no such thing existed in the Continental Army. Baron von Steuben, 1778
Above all, try always to be able to feel deeply any injustice committed against any person in any part of the world. It is the most beautiful quality of a revolutionary. Che Guevara
The hour is fast approaching on which the honor and success of this army, and the safety of our bleeding country depend. Remember, officers and soldiers, that you are free men, fighting for the blessings of liberty that slavery will be your portion if you do not acquit yourselves like men. George Washington, 1776
The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation. Vladimir Lenin
The Army, as usual, are without pay; and a great part of the soldiery without shirts; and though the patience of them is equally threadbare, the States seem perfectly indifferent to their cries. George Washington, 1783
Without Revolutionary theory, there can be no Revolutionary Movement. Vladimir Lenin
You know, you look at the chaos in the conservative camp right now, it’s only too tempting to blame it all on pot. But in fact, the Reagan revolution owes a lot to Reefer. For one thing, it’s made the symptoms of senility socially acceptable. A. Whitney Brown
Attention must be devoted principally to raising the workers to the level of revolutionaries; it is not our task to descend to the level of the ‘working masses. Vladimir Lenin
The best way to educate oneself is to become part of the revolution. Abbie Hoffman
The Russian revolution was nominally based on Communist dogma; but its significant struggle was to find some instrument by which a vast backward country could be mauled into industrialization. Adolf A. Berle
Every person has a revolution beating within his or her chest. Adam Braun
Revolution can never be forecast; it cannot be foretold; it comes of itself. Revolution is brewing and is bound to flare up. Vladimir Lenin
If today I stand here as a revolutionary, it is as a revolutionary against the Revolution. Adolf Hitler
Thus, the twentieth century marks the turning point from the old capitalism to the new, from the domination of capital in general to the domination of finance capital. Vladimir Lenin
You can kill a revolutionary, but you cannot kill a revolution. Afeni Shakur
And is it not sects, bodies of definite, uncompromising principles, that lead us into revolutions? Vladimir Lenin
I’m really not one about reform, I’m about tearing it down, revolution. Aja Monet
A revolution is always distinguished by impoliteness, probably because the ruling classes did not take the trouble in good season to teach the people fine manners. Leon Trotsky
Revolutions are something you see only in retrospect. Alan Greenspan
Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners. Vladimir Lenin
The real romance is out ahead and yet to come. The computer revolution hasn’t started yet. Alan Kay
Unity is a great thing and a great slogan. But what the workers’ cause needs is the unity of Marxists, not unity between Marxists, and opponents and distorters of Marxism. Vladimir Lenin
Revolt and revolution both wind up at the same crossroads: the police, or folly. Albert Camus
Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible. It is then an emanation of virtue. Maximilien Robespierre
More and more, revolution has found itself delivered into the hands of its bureaucrats and doctrinaires on the one hand, and to the enfeebled and bewildered masses on the other. Albert Camus
The French Revolution is the ultimate modernist statement. Destroy everything. Don’t build on the past. There is no past. John Corigliano
The French Revolution gave birth to no artists but only to a great journalist, Desmoulins, and to an under the counter writer, Sade. The only poet of the times was the guillotine. Albert Camus
The rich are only defeated when running for their lives. C. L. R. James
If I can’t have a revolution, what is there to dance about. Albert Meltzer
The ‘terror’ of the French Revolution lasted for ten years. The terror that preceded and led to it lasted for a thousand years. Edward Abbey
All revolutions are impossible until they happen. Then they become inevitable. Albie Sachs
The revolution is the war of liberty against its enemies. The constitution is the rule of liberty against its enemies. The constitution is the rule of liberty when victorious and peaceable. Maximilien Robespierre
Give me time and I’ll give you a revolution. Alexander McQueen
Among the lessons taught by the French revolution, there is none sadder or more striking than this that you may make everything else out of the passions of men except a political system that will work, and that there is nothing so pitilessly and unconsciously cruel as sincerity formulated into dogma. James Russell Lowell
If there ever are great revolutions there, they will be caused by the presence of the blacks upon American soil. Alexis de Tocqueville
The French Revolution was nothing but a precursor of another revolution, one that will be bigger, more solemn, and which will be the last. Francois Noel Babeuf
To destroy images is something every revolution has been able to do. Alfred Rosenberg
The international proletariat first appeared on the scene in the early Thirties of the nineteenth century, and its first great action was the French Revolution of 1848. C. L. R. James
There was no reason for a revolution in Paraguay. Alfredo Stroessner
The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant. Maximilien Robespierre
Revolution, n. In politics, an abrupt change in the form of misgovernment. Ambrose Bierce
It took us a long time to get rid of the effects of the French Revolution 200 years ago. We don’t want another one. Margaret Thatcher
Liberalization and democratization are in essence counter revolution. Andrei Grechko
I think the human race made a big mistake at the beginning of the industrial revolution, we leaped for the mechanical things, people need the use of their hands to feel creative. Andre Norton
Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary’s life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime. Angela Davis
You can’t have an industrial revolution, you can’t have democracies, you can’t have populations who can govern themselves until you have literacy. The printing press simply unlocked literacy. Howard Rheingold
The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. Thomas Jefferson
The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second used electric power to create mass production. The Third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Klaus Schwab
A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. Thomas Jefferson
Conserving habitats is a wellspring for the next industrial revolution. Janine Benyus
Never spend your money before you have earned it. Thomas Jefferson
If you go back to 1800, everybody was poor. I mean everybody. The Industrial Revolution kicked in, and a lot of countries benefited, but by no means everyone. Bill Gates
The glow of one warm thought is to me worth more than money. Thomas Jefferson
The purpose of every industrial revolution is to make craft and skills obsolete, and thereby make people interchangeable and cheap. Greg Palast
I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend. Thomas Jefferson
The men who made the Industrial Revolution are usually pictured as hardfaced businessmen with no other motive than self interest. Jacob Bronowski
To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. Thomas Jefferson
The Industrial Revolution was another of those extraordinary jumps forward in the story of civilization. Stephen Gardiner
I cannot live without books. Thomas Jefferson
When the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century brought a rapid increase in wealth, the demand of workers for a fair share of the wealth they were creating was conceded only after riots and strikes. John Boyd Orr
I predict future happiness for Americans, if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. Thomas Jefferson
The industrial revolution has tended to produce great urban masses that seem to be increasingly careless of ethical standards. Irving Babbitt
I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale. Thomas Jefferson
The American Revolution was, in fact, a battle against the philosophy of Locke and the English utilitarians. Robert Trout
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers. Thomas Jefferson
The end of democracy and the defeat of the American Revolution will occur when government falls into the hands of lending institutions and moneyed incorporations. Thomas Jefferson
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. Thomas Jefferson
It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains. Patrick Henry
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. Thomas Jefferson
The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. Thomas Jefferson
When we see religion split into so many thousand of sects, and I may say Christianity itself divided into its thousands also, who are disputing, anathematizing and where the laws permit burning and torturing one another for abstractions which no one of them understand, and which are indeed beyond the comprehension of the human mind, into which of the chambers of this Bedlam would a man wish to thrust himself. Thomas Jefferson
The progress of the American Revolution has been so rapid and such the alteration of manners that the principles which animated to the noblest exertions have been nearly annihilated. Mercy Otis Warren
All should be laid open to you without reserve, for there is not a truth existing which I fear, or would wish unknown to the whole world.
The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Thomas Jefferson
The time is near at hand which must determine whether Americans are to be free men or slaves. George Washington
It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan. Thomas Jefferson
The American war is over, but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution. Benjamin Rush
Every day is lost in which we do not learn something useful. Man has no nobler or more valuable possession than time. Thomas Jefferson
Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature. Benjamin Franklin
When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty. Thomas Jefferson
It is yet to be decided whether the Revolution must ultimately be considered as a blessing or a curse: a blessing or a curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will the destiny of unborn millions be involved. George Washington
Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it. Thomas Jefferson
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. Thomas Jefferson
Laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the general progress of the human mind. Thomas Jefferson
