96 Revolution-Inspiring Quotes

In times of change and upheaval, the right words can spark a revolution and inspire generations to strive for a better future. Words, when wielded with passion and purpose, have the power to ignite movements and stir souls. Welcome to our thoughtfully curated collection of the top 96 revolution-inspiring quotes. These timeless expressions of courage, defiance, and hope are drawn from some of history's most influential figures and moments. May they kindle the revolutionary spirit within you and serve as a beacon of inspiration in your journey towards creating meaningful change.

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 greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?” - Dorothy Day

3. “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

4. “By being natural and sincere, one often can create revolutions without having sought them.” - Christian Dior

5. “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime.” - Aristotle

6. “A revolution is coming – a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough – but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability.[Report to the United States Senate on his trip to Latin America and the Alliance for Progress, May 9-10 1966]” - Robert F. Kennedy

7. “But I don't shut up and I don't die.I liveand fight, maddeningthose who rule my country.For if I liveI fight,and if I fightI contribute to the dawn.” - Otto Rene Castillo

8. “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

9. “Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.” - Vladimir Lenin

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

11. “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

12. “A child who does not think about what happens around him and is content with living without wondering whether he lives honestly is like a man who lives from a scoundrel's work and is on the road to being a scoundrel.” - 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. “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

15. “Nevertheless, what was made in the hope of transforming the world need not be rejected because it failed to do so – otherwise, one would also have to throw out a good deal of the greatest painting and poetry of the nineteenth century. An objective political failure can still work as a model of intellectual affirmation or dissent.” - Robert Hughes

16. “...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

17. “Reform as such is inherently reactionary and perpetuates psychological dependence onthe enemy,while confusingthe true class contradictionsbetween ourselves and the enemy.” - Black Liberation Army Co-Ordinating Committee

18. “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

19. “Most of the mess that is called history comes about because kings and presidents cannot be satisfied with a nice chicken and a good loaf of bread.” - Jennifer Donnelly

20. “Warfare is now an interlocking system of actions—political, economic,psychological, military—that aims at the overthrow of the establishedauthority in a country and its replacement by another regime.” - Roger Trinquier

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

22. “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

23. “In reality, though, the first thing to ask of history is that it should pointout to us the paths of liberty. The great lesson to draw from revolutions isnot that they devour humanity but rather that tyranny never fails to generatethem.” - Pierre Elliot Trudeau

24. “You felt, in spite of all bureaucracy and inefficiency and party strife something that was like the feeling you expected to have and did not have when you made your first communion. It was a feeling of consecration to a duty toward all of the oppressed of the world which would be as difficult and embarrasing to speak about as religious experience and yet it was as authentic as the feeling you had when you heard Bach, or stood in Chartres Cathedral or the Cathedral at León and saw the light coming through the great windows; or when you saw Mantegna and Greco and Brueghel in the Prado. It gave you a part in something that you could believe in wholly and completely and in which you felt an absolute brotherhood with the others who were engaged in it. It was something that you had never known before but that you had experienced now and you gave such importance to it and the reasons for it that you own death seemed of complete unimportance; only a thing to be avoided because it would interfere with the performance of your duty. But the best thing was that there was something you could do about this feeling and this necessity too. You could fight.” - Ernest Hemingway

25. “Better to die fighting for freedom then be a prisoner all the days of your life.” - Bob Marley

26. “Don't just survive while waiting for someone's revolution to clear your head.” - Hakim Bey

27. “But I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is... to tell the truth.” - Howard Zinn

28. “What he realised, and more clearly as time went on, was that money-worship has been elevated into a religion. Perhaps it is the only real religion-the only felt religion-that is left to us. Money is what God used to be. Good and evil have no meaning any longer except failure and success. Hence the profoundly significant phrase, to make good. The decalogue has been reduced to two commandments. One for the employers-the elect, the money priesthood as it were- 'Thou shalt make money'; the other for the employed- the slaves and underlings'- 'Thou shalt not lose thy job.' It was about this time that he came across The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists and read about the starving carpenter who pawns everything but sticks to his aspidistra. The aspidistra became a sort of symbol for Gordon after that. The aspidistra, the flower of England! It ought to be on our coat of arms instead of the lion and the unicorn. There will be no revolution in England while there are aspidistras in the windows.” - George Orwell

29. “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

30. “The radicals assumed that acting was more important than speaking. Talking and writing books, Winstanley insisted, is 'all nothing and must die; for action is the life of all, and if thou dost not act, thou dost nothing.' It is a thought worth pondering by those who read books about the seventeenth-century radicals, no less than by those who write them. Were you doers or talkers only? Bunyan asked his generation. What canst thou say?” - Christopher Hill

31. “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

32. “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

33. “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

34. “Revolution is everywhere, in everything. There is no final revolution, no final number.” - Yevgeny Zamyatin

35. “Think about it: virtually every atrocity in the history of humankind was enabled by a populace that turned away from a reality that seemed too painful to face, while virtually every revolution for peace and justice has been made possibly by a group of people who chose to bear witness and demanded that others bear witness as well.” - Melanie Joy

36. “The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it.” - Abbie Hoffman

37. “Beautiful people don't need coats. They've got their auras to keep them warm.” - Jennifer Donnelly

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

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. “in Detroit, in July of 1967, what happened was no less than a guerrilla uprising.The Second American Revolution.” - Jeffrey Eugenides

41. “On those nights, the words were for me alone. They came up unbidden from my heart. They spilled over my tongue and spilled out my mouth. And because of them, I, who was nothing and nobody, was a prince of Denmark, a maid of Verona, a queen of Egypt. I was a sour misanthrope, a beetling hypocrite, a conjurer's daughter, a mad and murderous king.” - Jennifer Donnelly

42. “Get plugged in at your church. Find a way to invest yourself. Let's change the church's problem from 'Where do we find the help we need?' to 'What do we do with all the help we have?' The revolution begins now; and it starts with you.” - Tyler Edwards

43. “The team must consist of three sorts of specialists, he says. Otherwise the revolution, whether in politics or the arts or the sciences or whatever, is sure to fail.The rarest of these specialists, he says, is an authentic genius - a person capable of having seemingly good ideas not in in general circulation. "A genius working alone," he says, "is invariably ignored as a lunatic."The second sort of specialist is a lot easier to find; a highly intelligent citizen in good standing in his or her community, who understands and admires the fresh ideas of the genius, and who testifies that the genius is far from mad. "A person like this working alone," says Slazinger, "can only yearn loud for changes, but fail to say what their shaped should be."The third sort of specialist is a person who can explain everything, no matter how complicated, to the satisfaction of most people, no matter how stupid or pigheaded they may be. "He will say almost anything in order to be interesting and exciting," says Slazinger. "Working alone, depending solely on his own shallow ideas, he would be regarded as being as full of shit as a Christmas turkey.” - Kurt Vonnegut

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. “We need myths that will help us to identify with all our fellow-beings, not simply with those who belong to our ethnic, national or ideological tribe. We need myths that help us to realize the importance of compassion, which is not always regarded as sufficiently productive or efficient in our pragmatic, rational world. We need myths that help us to create a spiritual attitude, to see beyond our immediate requirements, and enable us to experience a transcendent value that challenges our solipsistic selfishness. We need myths that help us to venerate the earth as sacred once again, instead of merely using it as a 'resource.' This is crucial, because unless there is some kind of spiritual revolution that is able to keep abreast of our technological genius, we will not save our planet.” - Karen Armstrong

46. “The neo-cons, or some of them, decided that they would back Clinton when he belatedly decided for Bosnia and Kosovo against Milosevic, and this even though they loathed Clinton, because the battle against religious and ethnic dictatorship in the Balkans took precedence. This, by the way, was partly a battle to save Muslims from Catholic and Christian Orthodox killers. That impressed me. The neo-cons also took the view, quite early on, that coexistence with Saddam Hussein was impossible as well as undesirable. They were dead right about that. They had furthermore been thinking about the menace of jihadism when most people were half-asleep.And then I have to say that I was rather struck by the way that the Weekly Standard and its associated voices took the decision to get rid of Trent Lott earlier this year, thus removing an embarrassment as well as a disgrace from the political scene. And their arguments were on points of principle, not 'perception.' I liked their ruthlessness here, and their seriousness, at a time when much of the liberal Left is not even seriously wrong, but frivolously wrong, and babbles without any sense of responsibility. (I mean, have you read their sub-Brechtian stuff on Halliburton....?) And revolution from above, in some states and cases, is—as I wrote in my book A Long Short War—often preferable to the status quo, or to no revolution at all.” - Christopher Hitchens

47. “People of Panem, we fight, we dare, we end our hunger for justice!” There‘s dead silence on the set. It goes on. And on. Finally, the intercom crackles and Haymitch‘s acerbic laugh fills the studio. He contains himself just long enough to say, “And that, my friends, is how a revolution dies.” - Suzanne Collins

48. “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

49. “History reminds us that revolutions are not events, so much that they’re processes – that for tens of thousands of years, people have been making decisions that irrevocably shaped the world that we live in today; just as today, we are making subtle, irrevocable decisions that people of the future will remember as revolutions.” - John Green

50. “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

51. “We cannot prevail by our own might or strength, we need to plug on to the source of our strength so that we will remain resourceful always.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

52. “You may not attain the highest height with one leap but my dear; you will reach your destination.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

53. “You don't need to go running from pillar to post looking for what God looks like.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

54. “God is not a thief. That which steals, kills and destroys is the devil - not God!” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

55. “God comes down in the evenings to chat with man, enjoy man's company and find out how man faired in the course of the day.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

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

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

58. “You are not permitted to suffer what others suffer, you are not permitted to fail or die young.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

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

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

61. “I have always thought that in revolutions, especially democratic revolutions, madmen, not those so called by courtesy, but genuine madmen, have played a very considerable political part. One thing is certain, and that is that a condition of semi-madness is not unbecoming at such times, and often even leads to success.” - Alexis de Tocqueville

62. “De Sade is the one completely consistent and thoroughgoing revolutionary of history.” - Aldous Huxley

63. “Toda sociedad es un sistema de interpretación del mundo (...) Su propia identidad no es otra cosa que ese "sistema de interpretación", ese mundo que ella crea. Y esa es la razón por la cual la sociedad percibe como un peligro mortal todo ataque contra ese sistema de interpretación; lo persigue como un ataque contra su identidad, contra sí misma” - Cornelius Castoriadis

64. “There is nothing your knife handlers can do in the way of rioting and demonstrating that will have any permanent effect as long as, in the extremity, there is an army equipped with kinetic, chemical, and neurological weapons that is willing to use them against your people. You can get all the downtrodden and even all the respectables on your side, but you must somehow win over the security forces and the Imperial army or at least seriously weaken their loyalty to the rulers.” - Isaac Asimov

65. “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

66. “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

67. “remember when God has answered you, it no longer matters who has been against you but for Him to answer you and change your story, you have to make up your mind to disobey the wrong order, change the status quo and BE DIFFERENT!” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

68. “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.

69. “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

70. “I want to make a difference, I want to make a change, inspire a revolution, to create, reinvent, and rearrange.” - Meagan Earls

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

72. “Lenin only believes in the revolution and in the virtue of expediency.'One must be prepared for every sacrifice, to use, if necessary, every stratagem, ruse, illegal method, to be determined to conceal the truth, for the sole purpose of accomplishing, despite everything, the communist task'.” - Albert Camus

73. “In my opinion, if 100% of the people were farming it would be ideal. If each person were given one quarter-acre, that is 1 1/4 acres to a family of five, that would be more than enough land to support the family for the whole year. If natural farming were practiced, a farmer would also have plenty of time for leisure and social activities within the village community. I think this is the most direct path toward making this country a happy, pleasant land.” - Masanobu Fukuoka

74. “If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system.That's much more powerful than rebelling outside the system.” - Marie Lu

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

76. “By creating a society in which all people, of all colors, were granted freedom and citizenship, the Haitian Revolution forever transformed the world. It was a central part of the destruction of slavery in the Americas, and therefore a crucial moment in the history of democracy, one that laid the foundation for the continuing struggles for human rights everywhere. In this sense we are all descendents of the Haitain Revolution, and responsible to these ancestors.” - Laurent Dubois

77. “A confident woman knows her worth and so doesn’t fret when her man is highly placed or is often found amidst other women in the course of his business or assignment.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

78. “Ladies, get confident bout yourselves, build up your self-worth and esteem, love yourself and be proud of your achievements and your man will adore you for life.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

79. “Courage is the ability to execute tasks and assignments without fear or intimidation.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

80. “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.

81. “An intelligent woman is a goldmine! She has the ability to learn, reason and understand things better and faster than her contemporaries. She is competent, alert and can reason out stuffs easily.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

82. “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.

83. “A responsible woman sees and accepts only the best in a given situation.” - Agu, Jaachynma N.E.

84. “The most distinguished persons become more revolutionary as they grow older.” - George Bernard Shaw

85. “And is it not sects, bodies of definite, uncompromising principles, that lead us into revolutions?” - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin

86. “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

87. “Passando fra gli insorti che si scostavano con religioso rispetto, [papà Mabeuf] continuò dritto verso Enjolras che indietreggiava impietrito, gli strappò la bandiera, e senza che nessuno osasse trattenerlo né aiutarlo, quel vecchio ottuagenario col capo vacillante, ma col piede fermo, salì lentamente la scala di pietre costruita nella barricata. Lo spettacolo era così serio che tutto all'intorno dissero: «Giù il cappello!». A ogni gradino che saliva diventava sempre più terribile: i suoi capelli canuti, il volto decrepito, l'ampia fronte calma e rugosa, gli occhi incavati, la bocca attonita e semiaperta, il vecchio braccio che sosteneva la bandiera rossa, uscivano dall'ombra e ingigantivano nel sanguinoso chiarore della torcia, e sembrava di vedere lo spettro del 1793 sorgere dalla terra inalberando la bandiera del terrore.Quando fu all'ultimo gradino, quando quel fantasma tremante e terribile, ritto su quel mucchio di rovine dinanzi a milleduecento fucili invisibili, si drizzò in faccia alla morte come se fosse più forte di essa, tutta la barricata assunse nelle tenebre un aspetto colossale e soprannaturale. Vi fu uno di quegli istanti di silenzio che accompagnano i prodigi. In mezzo a quel silenzio il vegliardo sventolò la bandiera rossa e gridò:«Viva la Rivoluzione! Viva la Repubblica! Fratellanza! Uguaglianza! E morte!».” - Victor Hugo

88. “No turtle can be a revolutionist, because revolution requires high speed!” - Mehmet Murat ildan

89. “Don`t descend to the lowest ebb.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

90. “It turns out horrendous when you choose the wrong options.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

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

92. “Build up your faith while starving the fears.” - Jaachynma N.E. Agu

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

94. “Drown those degrading thoughts.” - Agu Jaachynma N E

95. “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

96. “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