Malcolm X Quotes

The word 'revolution' is a word for which you kill, for which you die, for which you send the labouring masses to their deaths; but which does not contain any content.

Revolution is not a goal in itself.

A revolution is generally only evolution--an explosive sequence of events crowded into a short space of time, but leaving more of the ancient regime untouched than usually is at first apparent.

I do see myself as aiming to foment some kind of revolution.

REVOLUTION, n. A bursting of the boilers which usually takes place when the safety valve of public discussion is closed.

Revolution means turning the wheel.

One should not interpret the word “Revolution” in its literal sense. Various meanings and significances are attributed to this word, according to the interests of those who use or misuse it. For the established agencies of exploitation it conjures up a feeling of blood stained horror. To the revolutionaries it is a sacred phrase.

Revolutions usually start with enthusiasm and end in tears.

Three words remain that can yet stir the blood of man: the word 'rebellion'; the word 'revolt'; the word 'revolution'.

And revolutions always mean the breakdown of old authority.

For me, 'revolution' simply means radical change.

Revolt is not reform, and one revolutionary administration is not good government.

Revolts, republics, revolutions, most no graver than a schoolboy’s barring out.

Revolution is always delightful in the preliminary stages. So long as it's a question of getting rid of the people at the top.

it is not the topping of a regime that determines the overall success of a revolution -- it's dismantling the past in favor of a better future.

Successful revolutions are those which end up by erasing all traces of themselves.

It is not necessary to wait until all conditions for making revolution exist; the insurrection can create them.

Revolution used to be cool, but now it's out of fashion.

Revolution? Unscrew the flag-staff, wrap the bunting in the oil covers, and put the thing in the clothes-chest. Let the old lady bring you your house-slippers and untie your fiery red necktie. You always make revolutions with your mugs, your republic--nothing but an industrial accident.

People involved in a revolution don't become part of the system; they destroy the system... The Negro revolution is no revolution because it condemns the system and then asks the system it has condemned to accept them.

Tomorrow the revolution will already 'raise itself with a rattle' and announce with fanfare, to your terror: I was, I am, I will be!

Rebellions tend to be negative, to denounce and expose the enemy without providing a positive vision of a new future...A revolution is not just for the purpose of correcting past injustices, a revolution involves a projection of man/woman into the future...It begins with projecting the notion of a more human human being, i.e. a human being who is more advanced in the specific qualities which only human beings have - creativity, consciousness and self-consciousness, a sense of political and social responsibility.

The revolution has overthrown the monarchy, true! But perhaps this means that the revolution simply has driven the skin disease inside the organism.

Change has no constituency and a perceived revolution has even less.