Quotes about Revolution | Quote11 - The Quote Provider

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Mao Zedong

Founding Father of the People's Republic of China

Soldiers are the foundation of an army; unless they are imbued with a progressive political spirit, and unless such a spirit is fostered through progressive political work, it will be impossible to achieve genuine unity between officers and men, impossible to arouse their enthusiasm for the War of Resistance to the full, and impossible to provide an excellent basis for the most effective use of all our technical equipment and tactics.

Achievement - Excellence - Man - Politics - Revolution - Spirits

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Leon Trotsky

Revolutionary, Politician

What shall we call an "immediate possibility"? In 1923 the situation in Germany was profoundly revolutionary, but what was lacking for a victorious revolution was a correct strategy.

Revolution

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Karl Marx

Philosopher, Economist, Political Theorist, Social Revolutionary

...the very cannibalism of the counterrevolution will convince the nations that there is only one way in which the murderous death agonies of the old society and the bloody birth throes of the new society can be shortened, simplified and concentrated, and that way is revolutionary terror.

Communicate - Revolution - Terrorism

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Bertrand Russell

Philosopher, Writer, Activist

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth - more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid ... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.

Destructiveness - Earth - Indifference - Man - Revolution - Wellness

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Joseph Conrad

Writer

It seems to me I am trying to tell you a dream - making a vain attempt, because no relation of a dream can convey the dream-sensation, that commingling of absurdity, surprise, and bewilderment in a tremor of struggling revolt, that notion of being captured by the incredible which is of the very essence of dreams.

Absurd - Giving - Notions - Revolution - Sensuality - Trial - Vanity

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Mao Zedong

Founding Father of the People's Republic of China

Without armed struggle neither the proletariat, nor the people, nor the Communist Party would have any standing at all in China and it would be impossible for the revolution to triumph. In these years [the eighteen years since the founding of the Party] the development, consolidation and bolshevization of our Party have proceeded in the midst of revolutionary wars; without armed struggle the Communist Party would assuredly not be what it is today. Comrades throughout the Party must never forget this experience for which we have paid in blood.

Communism - Comrades - Revolution

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Martin Luther

Theologian, Professor, Monk

Like the early Christians, we must move into a sometime hostile world armed with the revolutionary gospel of Jesus Christ. With this powerful gospel we shall boldly challenge the status quo.

Challenge - Christianity - Movement - Religion - Revolution

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Mahatma Gandhi

Lawyer, Politician, Civil Rights Activist

Whilst I may not actually help anyone to retaliate, I must not let a coward seek shelter behind nonviolence so-called. Not knowing the stuff of which nonviolence is made, many have honestly believed that running away from danger every time was a virtue compared to offering resistance, especially when it was fraught with danger to one's life. As a teacher of nonviolence I must, so far as it is possible for me, guard against such an unmanly belief.

Cowardice - Help - Honesty - Knowledge - Making - Revolution - Teaching

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George Orwell

Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Critic

If I had understood the situation a bit better I should probably have joined the Anarchists.

Anarchy - Revolution

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Calvin Coolidge

Former President of the United States

Don't hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table.

Reaction - Revolution

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Alexander Hamilton

Secretary of the Treasury, Army Senior Officer

It is impossible to read the history of the petty republics of Greece and Italy without feeling sensations of horror and disgust at the distractions with which they were continually agitated, and at the rapid succession of revolutions by which they were kept in a state of perpetual vibration between the extremes of tyranny and anarchy . . . great improvement . . . were either not known at all, or imperfectly known to the ancients.

Anarchy - Disgust - Distraction - Education - Extreme - Feelings - Impossible - Improvement - Knowledge - Republic - Revolution - Sensuality - State - Vibrations

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Albert Camus

Philosopher, Author, Journalist

Revolt and revolution both wind up at the same crossroads: the police, or folly.

Revolution

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Napoleon

Military and Political Leader, Emperor of the French

There are only two forces that unite men - fear and interest. All great revolutions originate in fear, for the play of interests does not lead to accomplishment.

Accomplishment - Force - Interest - Man - Playing - Revolution

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Victor Hugo

Poet, Novelist, Dramatist

Fashions have done more harm than revolutions.

Fashion - Revolution

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John Lennon

Singer, Songwriter

I thought the original Communist revolutionaries coordinated themselves a bit better and didn't go around shouting about it.

Communism - Original - Revolution

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George Orwell

Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Critic

The English are probably more capable than most peoples of making revolutionary change without bloodshed. In England, if anywhere,it would be possible to abolish poverty without destroying liberty.

Revolution

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Napoleon

Military and Political Leader, Emperor of the French

Muhammad was a prince; he rallied his compatriots around him. In a few years, the Muslims conquered half of the world. They plucked more souls from false gods, knocked down more idols, razed more pagan temples in fifteen years than the followers of Moses and Jesus did in fifteen centuries. Muhammad was a great man. He would indeed have been a god, if the revolution that he had performed had not been prepared by the circumstances.

Army - Follower - Man - Paganism - Preparedness - Revolution - Soul - World

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Mao Zedong

Founding Father of the People's Republic of China

There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art that is detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole proletarian revolutionary cause.

Detachment - Facts - Independence - Revolution - Whole

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John Adams

Former President of the United States

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.

Education - Mathematics - Navy - Politics - Revolution - Sensuality - Studying

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Isaac Asimov

Writer, Professor

There is not a discovery in science, however revolutionary, however sparkling with insight, that does not arise out of what went before.

Revolution

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Leon Trotsky

Revolutionary, Politician

Once again, he who ignores the problems of revolutionary strategy would do better not to talk about revolutions at all.

Revolution

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John Kenneth Galbraith

Economist, Diplomat

All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door.

Revolution - Success

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Napoleon

Military and Political Leader, Emperor of the French

Revolutions are like the most noxious dungheaps, which bring into life the noblest vegetables.

Revolution

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Mahatma Gandhi

Lawyer, Politician, Civil Rights Activist

Though violence is not lawful, when it is offered in self-defense or for the defense of the defenseless, it is an act of bravery far better than cowardly submission. The latter befits neither man nor woman. Under violence, there are many stages and varieties of bravery. Every man must judge this for himself. No other person can or has the right.

Man - Oneself - Revolution

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Stephen Jay Gould

Paleontologist, Evolutionary Biologist, Science Historian

The most important scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous convictions about our centrality in the cosmos.

Conviction - Revolution - Science

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James Madison

Former President of the United States

Every answer he [President John Adams] gives to his addressers unmasks more and more his principles and views. His language to the young men at Philadelphia is the most abominable and degrading that could fall from the lips of the first magistrate of an independent people, and particularly from a Revolutionary patriot.

Fall - Independence - Linguistics - Man - Principle - Revolution

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C. S. Lewis

Novelist, Scholar, Broadcaster

There is someone that I love even though I don't approve of what he does. There is someone I accept though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is......me.

Accept - Actions - Hurting - Revolution

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George Orwell

Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Critic

We are in a strange period of history in which a revolutionary has to be a patriot and a patriot has to be a revolutionary.

Revolution

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Bertrand Russell

Philosopher, Writer, Activist

In the revolt against idealism, the ambiguities of the word experience have been perceived, with the result that realists have more and more avoided the word.

Avoidance - Perception - Revolution

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Indira Gandhi

Former Prime Minister of India

Not only Negroes and Jews, but also women are part of a great revolt of which one can only approve.

Jewish - Revolution

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Aristotle

Philosopher

In revolutions the occasions may be trifling but great interest are at stake.

Interest - Rebelling - Revolution

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Aristotle

Philosopher

Revolutions are effected in two ways, by force and by fraud.

Force - Fraud - Revolution

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