113 Revolutionary Quotes

In every era, there are voices that rise above the fray, challenging the status quo and inspiring change. Revolutionaries possess a unique ability to distill the essence of their movements into powerful words, leaving us with timeless quotes that continue to resonate through the ages. Whether it's the eloquence of political reformers, the fervor of social activists, or the innovative zeal of scientific pioneers, each quote in our curated collection of the top 113 Revolutionary Quotes offers a glimpse into the minds of those who dared to defy convention and reshape the world. Join us as we explore these stirring words that have the power to ignite hearts and minds alike.

1. “No great idea in its beginning can ever be within the law. How can it be within the law? The law is stationary. The law is fixed. The law is a chariot wheel which binds us all regardless of conditions or place or time. ” - Emma Goldman

2. “The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... What country before ever existed a century and half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” - Thomas Jefferson

3. “You never change things by fighting the existing reality.To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” - Buckminster Fuller

4. “Better a good journalist than a poor assassin.” - Jean-Paul Sartre

5. “Societies in decline have no use for visionaries.” - Anais Nin

6. “Ask for work. If they don't give you work, ask for bread. If they do not give you work or bread, then take bread.” - Emma Goldman

7. “It still would be years before I understood the seriousness of my change of view. Much later, I recognized it in "Revolution," the essay of Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, who describes the moment when a man on the edge of a crowd looks back defiantly at a policeman — and when that policeman senses a sudden refusal to accept his defining gaze — as the imperceptible moment in which rebellion is born. "All books about all revolutions begin with a chapter that describes the decay of tottering authority or the misery and sufferings of the people," Kapuscinski writes. "They should begin with a psychological chapter — one that shows how a harassed, terrified man suddenly breaks his terror, stops being afraid. This unusual process — sometimes accomplished in an instant, like a shock — demands to be illustrated. Man gets rid of fear and feel free. Without that, there would be no revolution.” - Gloria Steinem

8. “It is worthy to note, that the early popularity of Washington was not the result of brilliant achievement nor signal success; on the contrary, it rose among trials and reverses, and may almost be said to have been the fruit of defeat.” - Washington Irving

9. “You are hard at work madam ," said the man near her.Yes," Answered Madam Defarge ; " I have a good deal to do."What do you make, Madam ?"Many things."For instance ---"For instance," returned Madam Defarge , composedly ,Shrouds."The man moved a little further away, as soon as he could, feeling it mightily close and oppressive .” - Charles Dickens

10. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."[Remarks on the first anniversary of the Alliance for Progress, 13 March 1962]” - John F. Kennedy

11. “Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.” - Vladimir Lenin

12. “But love, like the sun that it is, sets afire and melts everything. what greed and privilege to build up over whole centuries the indignation of a pious spirit, with its natural following of oppressed souls, will cast down with a single shove.” - Jose Marti

13. “There's one hole in every revolution, large or small. And it's one word long— PEOPLE. No matter how big the idea they all stand under, people are small and weak and cheap and frightened. It's people that kill every revolution.” - Warren Ellis

14. “You cannot buy the revolution. You cannot make the revolution. You can only be the revolution. It is in your spirit, or it is nowhere.” - Ursula K. Le Guin

15. “The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.” - G.K. Chesterton

16. “You said, 'They’re harmless dreamers and they’re loved by the people.' 'What,' I asked you, 'is harmless about a dreamer, and what,' I asked you, 'is harmless about the love of the people? Revolution only needs good dreamers who remember their dreams.” - Tennessee Williams

17. “Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn't fit in with the core belief.” - Frantz Fanon

18. “We shall convince France and the world, that we are not a degraded people, humiliated under a colonial spirit of fear and a sense of inferiority, fitted to be the miserable instruments of foreign influence, and regardless of national honor, character, and interest.” - John Adams

19. “...this protracted war will pass through three stages. The first stage covers the period of the enemy's strategic offensive and our strategic defensive. The second stage will be the period of the enemy's strategic consolidation and our preparation for the counter-offensive. The third stage will be the period of our strategic counter-offensive and the enemy's strategic retreat.” - Mao Zedong

20. “Grease the guillotine with the fat of tyrants. Pull the concubine out of the clergyman`s bed. Monarch`s blood must flow, as thick as our boots. From there the free republic will rise.” - Friedrich Hecker

21. “Revolution is a spectators sport. The majority will sit in the stands and watch the factions fight. At the end they will choose side with the team that is winning. ” - George Lincoln Rockwell

22. “It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees.” - Emiliano Zapata

23. “Fantasy. Lunacy.All revolutions are, until they happen, then they are historical inevitabilities.” - David Mitchell

24. “SECOND SUNSo much bloodHas been spent in this world,But we have not yet built a sun of blood.Listen, my friend,To these trembling words:A second sun will be born of our blood in the form of a heart.” - Visar Zhiti

25. “A revolution is an idea, taken up by bayonets.” - Napoleon Bonaparte

26. “You had to have these peasant leaders quickly in this sort of war and a real peasant leader might be a little too much like Pablo. You couldn't wait for the real Peasant Leader to arrive and he might have too many peasant characteristics when he did. So you had to manifacture one. At that, from what he had seen of Campesino, with his black beard, his thick negroid lips, and his feverish, staring eyes, he thought he might give almost as much trouble as a real peasant leader. The last time he had seen him he seemed to have gotten to believe his own publicity and think he was a peasant.” - Ernest Hemingway

27. “By the rude bridge that arched the flood,Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,Here once the embattled farmers stood,And fired the shot heard round the world.The foe long since in silence slept;Alike the conqueror silent sleeps;And Time the ruined bridge has sweptDown the dark stream which seaward creeps.On this green bank, by this soft stream,We set to-day a votive stone;That memory may their deed redeem,When, like our sires, our sons are gone.Spirit, that made those heroes dareTo die, and leave their children free,Bid Time and Nature gently spareThe shaft we raise to them and thee.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

28. “We have been expropriated from our own language by television, from our songs by reality TV contests, from our flesh by mass pornography, from our city by the police and from our friends by wage-labor.” - The Invisible Committee

29. “To call the population of strangers in the midst of which we live "society" is such a usurpation that even the sociologists wonder if they should abandon a concept that was, for a century, their bread and butter. Now they prefer the metaphor of a network to describe the connection of cybernetic solitudes, the intermeshing of weak interactions under names like "colleague," "contact," "buddy," acquaintance," or "date." Such networks sometimes condense into a milieu, where nothing is shared but codes, and where nothing is played out except the incessant recomposition of identity.” - The Invisible Committee

30. “The situation is like this: they hired our parents to destroy this world, and now they'd like to put us to work rebuilding it, and -- to add insult to injury -- at a profit.” - The Invisible Committee

31. “Hard to believe that so nearby, just across the Channel, such atrocities could still occur in their supposedly civilized world, that one could wake up one morning and find oneself bereft of brothers, parents, friends, all with the slice of an ax.” - Lauren Willig

32. “The ones who close the path for peacefull revolution, at the same time open the path for violent revolution.” - Hugo Chavez

33. “William: "I'm sure we can all pull together, sir."Vetinari: "Oh, I do hope not. Pulling together is the aim of despotism and tyranny. Free men pull in all kinds of directions.” - Terry Pratchett

34. “Unjust social orders do no fall merely by appeals to the consciences of the oppressor, though such appeals may be an important element; history teaches us that they fall because a large enough number of people organize a movement powerful enough to push them down. Rarely do such revolutions emerge in a neat and morally pristine process.” - Timothy B. Tyson

35. “Carelessness on the part of revolutionaries has always been the best aid the police have.” - Victor Serge

36. “Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we’re being brainwashed to believe. The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability. Remember this: We be many and they be few. They need us more than we need them. Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.” - Arundhati Roy

37. “The greatest mistake of the movement has been trying to organize a sleeping people around specific goals. You have to wake the people up first, then you'll get action.” - Malcolm X

38. “They (the French) have taken genius instead of reason for their guide, adopted experiment instead of experience, and wander in the dark because they prefer lightning to light.” - Gouverneur Morris

39. “La revolución beneficia al pobre, al ignorante, al que toda su vida ha sido esclavo, a los infelices que ni siquiera saben que si lo son es porque el rico convierte en oro las lágrimas, el sudor y la sangre de los pobres. || The revolution benefits the poor, the ignorant, who all his life has been a slave, the unfortunate who do not know if they are is because the rich becomes the tears, sweat and blood of the poor in gold.” - Mariano Azuela

40. “What a revolution in her ideas!” - Jane Austen

41. “To attempt, to brave, to persist, and persevere, to be faithful to one's self, to wrestle with destiny, to astound the catastrophe by the slight fear which is causes us, now to confront unjust power, again to insult intoxicated victory, to hold firm and withstand -- such is the example which nations need and the light which electrifies them.” - Victor Hugo

42. “Die Revolution hätte mich mitgerissen, hätte sie nicht mit Verbrechen begonnen: beim Anblick des ersten Kopfes auf der Spitze einer Pike zuckte ich zurück. Niemals wird für mich der Mord Gegenstand der Bewunderung und ein Argument für die Freiheit sein.” - Francois-Rene Chateaubriand

43. “But when you talk about destruction, don't you know that you can count me out.” - Beatles

44. “I don't have a life of my own. I've put myself and my life at the service of the people. If necessity dictates I run, I run.. go to jail, I go to jail.. die, I die.My private aspirations are exactly the general aspirations of the people.” - Yusuf Idris - R. Neil Hewison

45. “Revolution from above, in some states and cases, is [...] often preferable to the status quo, or to no revolution at all.” - Christopher Hitchens

46. “Insofar as the theorist wins, therefore, by constructing an increasingly closed and terrifying machine, to that very degree he loses, since the critical capacity of his work is thereby paralysed, and the impulses of negation and revolt, not to speak of those of social transformation, are increasingly perceived as vain and trivial in the face of the model itself.” - Fredric Jameson

47. “Egyptians are like camels: they can put up with beatings, humiliation and starvation for a long time but when they rebel they do so suddenly and with a force that is impossible to control.” - Alaa Al Aswany

48. “DevrimDevrim tinsel bir fenomendir.Politik devrim,sosyal devrim veya ekonomik devrim diye bir şey yoktur. Devrim sadece bireysel ruhlar için mümkündür.Sosyal devrim sahte bir olgudur çünkü toplumun kendine ait bir ruhu yoktur.Tek devrim ruhun devrimidir,bireyseldir.Ve eğer milyonlarca birey değişirse bunun sonucunda toplum da değişir;tersi olmaz.Önce toplumu değiştirip ardından bireylerin değişmesini bekleyemezsiniz.Devrimlerin başarısız olmasının sebebi budur çünkü devrime çok yanlış bir noktadan bakıyoruz.Eğer toplumu değiştirirsek bir gün bireylerin,toplumu oluşturan her bir öğenin de değişeceğini düşünürüz.Bu aptalcadır.” - Osho

49. “Anarchy is like custard cooking over a flame; it has to be constantly stirred or it sticks and gets heavy, like government.” - Tom Robbins

50. “The boldest plans for the future invoke the authority of the past; and that even a revolutionary seeks to satisfy himself that he is also a reactionary.” - G.K. Chesterton

51. “What the gods are supposed to be, what the priests are commissioned to say, is not a sensational secret like what those running messengers of the Gospel had to say. Nobody else except those messengers has any Gospel; nobody else has any good news; for the simple reason that nobody else has any news.Those runners gather impetus as they run. Ages afterwards they still speak as if something had just happened. Theyhave not lost the speed and momentum of messengers; they have hardly lost, as it were, the wild eyes of witnesses. In the Catholic Church, which is the cohort of the message, there are still those headlong acts of holiness that speak of something rapid and recent; a self-sacrifice that startles the world like a suicide. But it is not a suicide; it is not pessimistic; it is still as optimistic as St. Francis of the flowers and birds. It is newer in spirit than the newest schools of thought; and it is almost certainly on the eve of new triumphs. For these men serve a mother who seems to grow more beautiful as new generations rise up and call her blessed. We might sometimes fancy that the Church grows younger as the world grows old.” - G.K. Chesterton

52. “To all the revolutionaries fighting to throw off the yoke of tyranny around the world: look at British democracy. Is that what you want?” - Andy Zaltzman

53. “I stressed that I did not want to be treated like a hero. I was only one member of the revolutionary masses who had fulfilled his duty towards his country. It was easy to write, rant, and mobilize people using the internet. The real heroes of this revolution were the people who had died and been injured.” - Wael Ghonim

54. “The Prince came to give life unto those whose lives were almost being snuffed out by the devil via the cares of this world.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

55. “Everyone that enters through Him is secured and the person shall find pastures for himself. Jesus really cares!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

56. “When we are connected to the source, we will not be afraid of any task set before us.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

57. “God wants all man's attention, thoughts and focus to be on Him.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

58. “Your decision not to join the crowd may be what God is waiting for to grant you revelation on how to deliver your family, your country, business, profession or even your church!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

59. “God rewards every act of obedience to His Will.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

60. “Another way of remaining in intimacy with God is by remaining in His presence.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

61. “Worship is the marriage of two Spirits - the Spirit of God and the Spirit of man.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

62. “Create your world with God's Word in your mouth just say it and it will be accomplished!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

63. “Your status has changed. Your Name is changed! You are a new creation.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

64. “Don't let any situation intimidate you anymore, don't accept defeat anymore.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

65. “Don't call yourself discouraged anymore;it's no longer your name.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

66. “Dominate in your domain; You can do it.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

67. “How many shots had to be fired to turn this child back to his home and anxious mother?” - Maaza Mengiste

68. “It does not do to rely too much on silent majorities, Evey, for silence is a fragile thing, one loud noise, and its gone. But the people are so cowed and disorganised. A few might take the opportunity to protest, but it'll just be a voice crying in the wilderness. Noise is relative to the silence preceding it. The more absolute the hush, the more shocking the thunderclap. Our masters have not heard the people's voice for generations, Evey and it is much, much louder than they care to remember.” - Alan Moore & David Lloyd

69. “Don't blow off another's candle for it won't make yours shine brighter.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

70. “Don't set your goals by what other people deem important.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

71. “The revolution lasted six minutes and covered one hundred an twelve meters.” - Cordwainer Smith

72. “The lesson we are indebted to Egypt for, our future generations learned that in the face of oppression silence is never golden.” - Aysha Taryam

73. “We will remember the way things used to be, and teach our children to be better than us. The generations that follow will remember with us. In that day, we will all be free” - Rachel Higginson

74. “We can fight fire with water provided we can get it there soon enough. But often we act when it's too late. The result is splattered in the pages of our history: bloodbaths, uprisings, revolutions, you name. And on it goes. We learn so slowly. After so many centuries, we're still a people who eat fire and drink water.' 'Why bother,then?' 'Because we have to believe that one day we'll learn.” - Arlene J. Chai

75. “Each of you must decide where you stand. All we ask is that you refuse to kneel. You are the people. You have the power. Open your eyes. Open your minds. Then close the fingers on your hand.” - Jay Kristoff

76. “A conscience is easier to swallow on an empty belly, simpler to swing with a broken wrist” - Jay Kristoff

77. “You can change any status quo, stand out, walk by faith and not by sight and things will definitely go well with you.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

78. “. . . and what are you exactly, my friend? Their subordinate? Their employee? Or, I would suggest, their equal? That's what young Karl would certainly have said, and probably still does. Unless he's no longer alive.' Dodger gave Solomon and strange look and Solomon hastened to clarify. "'Mmmm, as I recall, if you go around telling people that they are downtrodden, you tend to make two separate enemies: the people who are doing the downtreading and have no intention of stopping, and the people who are downtrodden, but nevertheless -- people being who they are -- don't want to know. They can get quite nasty about it.' (205)” - Terry Pratchett

79. “When they began, they could not have thought that it would end like this, because their time seemed to them as simple as a flame. We know now that it was a very complicated time and that they were more complicated people than they knew.” - Murray Kempton

80. “this is the 21st century and we need to redefine r/evolution. this planet needs a people’s r/evolution. a humanist r/evolution. r/evolution is not about bloodshed or about going to the mountains and fighting. we will fight if we are forced to but the fundamental goal of r/evolution must be peace.we need a r/evolution of the mind. we need a r/evolution of the heart. we need a r/evolution of the spirit. the power of the people is stronger than any weapon. a people’s r/evolution can’t be stopped. we need to be weapons of mass construction. weapons of mass love. it’s not enough just to change the system. we need to change ourselves. we have got to make this world user friendly. user friendly.are you ready to sacrifice to end world hunger. to sacrifice to end colonialism. to end neo-colonialism. to end racism. to end sexism.r/evolution means the end of exploitation. r/evolution means respecting people from other cultures. r/evolution is creative.r/evolution means treating your mate as a friend and an equal. r/evolution is sexy.r/evolution means respecting and learning from your children. r/evolution is beautiful.r/evolution means protecting the people. the plants. the animals. the air. the water. r/evolution means saving this planet.r/evolution is love.” - Assata Shakur

81. “The American war is over, but this is far from being the case with the American Revolution.” - Benjamin Rush

82. “Truth! Freedom! Justice! And a hard-boiled egg!” - Terry Pratchett

83. “Without Psychological Evolution there cannot be any form of revolution. The self is constantly changing. Be involved, be evolved, be revolutionized as lucent and fresh as the new wave hitting at the shore. Become the Sea of Changes. It starts from within.” - Grigoris Deoudis

84. “If there was a spectre haunting France in the 1780's, it was not that of revolution but that of state bankruptcy. The whole social and political structure of France stood in the way of tapping the wealth of the better-off, the only sure way of emerging from the financial impasse.” - John Morris Roberts

85. “Reality is highly overrated.” - Roxanne Bland

86. “Do you hear the people sing? Singing a song of angry men” - Victor Hugo

87. “A Nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but it's lowest ones” - Nelson Mandela

88. “I have these secret pangs of shame about being single, like I wasn't good enough to get a husband. Rita reminded me of something I'd told her once, about the five rules of the world as arrived at by this Catholic priest named Tom Weston. The first rule, he says, is that you must not have anything wrong with you or anything different. The second one is that if you do have something wrong with you, you must get over it as soon as possible. The third rule is that if you can't get over it, you must pretend that you have. The fourth rule is that if you can't even pretend that you have, you shouldn't show up. You should stay home, because it's hard for everyone else to have you around. And the fifth rule is that if you are going to insist on showing up, you should at least have the decency to feel ashamed.So Rita and I decided that the most subversive, revolutionary thing I could do was to show up for my life and not be ashamed.” - Anne Lamott

89. “Ok I'm not so smart I'm working class. But it's the working class that keeps the world running and it's the working class that get exploited. What kind revolution is it that just throws out big words that working class people can't understand.Revolution or not the working class will just keep on scraping a living in the same old shitholesI'm not going to believe in any damned revolution. Love is all I'm going to believe in. -- Midori” - Haruki Murakami

90. “Revolution is an awakening, so is the spring! Spring is an awakening, so is the revolution!” - Mehmet Murat ildan

91. “Pioneering is never done in front of cheerleaders urging on a roaring grandstand of popular approval.” - George Takei

92. “Revolution must take place within one's own mind.” - Lionel Suggs

93. “A confident woman wears a smile and has this air of comfortability and pleasantness about her.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

94. “Men love women who are courageous for it means they can go all the way with him in his pursuit of his good dreams and intentions.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

95. “A woman can tolerate delays knowing they are not denials; she is diligent, and composed. She is not easily irritated like love; she endures all things, beans all things and can be stretched to any limit.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

96. “A responsible woman doesn’t see opportunities and needs and look the other way pretending not to see them rather she gets to work to ensure things are done properly and her man succeeds in his endeavours.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

97. “To send men to the firing squad, judicial proof is unnecessary. These procedures are an archaic bourgeois detail. This is a revolution! And a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate. We must create the pedagogy of the paredón [execution wall].” - Ernesto Che Guevara

98. “Are the worst enemies of society those who attack it or those who do not even give themselves the trouble of defending it?” - Gustave Le Bon

99. “[O]ne cannot separate violence from the very exist­ ence of the state (as the apparatus of class domination): from the standpoint of the'subordinated and oppressed, the very existence of a state is a fact of violence (in the same sense in which, for example, Robespierre said, in his justification of the regicide, that one does not have to prove that the king committed any specific crimes, since the very existence of the king is a crime, an offence against the freedom of the people). In this strict sense, every violence of the oppressed against the ruling class and its state is ultimately ‘defensive’. If we do not concede this point, we volens nolens ‘normalize’ the state and accept that its violence is merely a matter of contin­ gent excesses (to be dealt with through democratic reforms).” - Slavoj Žižek

100. “La historia es una increíble cantidad de manotazos por todos lados, algunos agarran la manija y otros se quedan con los dedos en el aire, pero cuando sumás el todo por ahí te da la revolución francesa o el Moncada.” - Julio Cortazar

101. “Be positive at all times! Leave out the negatives.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

102. “Shout out for Joy! Don`t scream out in fear for victors shout and victims scream.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

103. “Sow good seeds for a good yield.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

104. “Sow the right words! Think the good thought.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

105. “Have the best course for all your actions.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

106. “Accept responsibilities for all your actions. Learn from your past and your mistakes.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

107. “It was not yet known how the Revolution would develop. But Upton supposed that the arguments of the philosophical anarchists were most convincing: society would fragmentise into independent, self-governing communities of mutually congenial individuals, requiring no police, no army, no guardians of morality, and no government. The old Deity being dead and dethroned, Humankind would come at last into power.” - Joyce Carol Oates

108. “Patriarchy, reformed or unreformed, is patriarchy still: its worst abuses purged or foresworn, it might actually be more stable and secure than before.” - Kate Millett

109. “When the corruption seems to go all the way to the end of the world, the only good approach is through the front door with a gun in each hand.” - Mira Grant

110. “There is nothing revolutionary whatsoever about the control of women's bodies by men. The woman's body is the terrain on which patriarchy is erected.” - Adrienne Rich

111. “Real education is about revolution.” - Bryant McGill

112. “Lifelong learning is like a never ending personal revolution.” - Bryant McGill

113. “One person really can make a difference. Each person is the revolution.” - Bryant McGill