Noam Chomsky Quotes

Revolutions are not made with rosewater.

… the most sacred right [revolution] to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better.

A king can stand people's fighting but he can't last long if people start thinking.

At the highest stage of capitalism, the most necessary revolution appears as the most unlikely one.

Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.

When the fabric of society is so rigid that it cannot change quickly enough, adjustments are achieved by social unrest and revolutions.

If you compromise in any kind of movement or any kind of wave of revolution, if you sort of play the game, things are gonna change far more slowly than you need them to.

Revolution comes when human beings set out to correct decadent institutions.

America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.

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

Fire in the lake: The image of revolution.

Great institutions can only be reformed by stealth or by revolution.

I want a prepared, organized, orderly and resistless revolution.

One cannot pretend that the sending of a dozen men to a country will lead to a revolution.

Revolutions are not made, they come.

Revolutions are not easy.

Progressive, radical, or even revolutionary change has always come from below.

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.

A revolution simply means great change, significant change, and that's how I'm defining it - great change for the better, brought about through non-violent means.

Revolution in the modern case is no longer an uncouth business.

All great movements are popular movements. They are the volcanic eruptions of human passions and emotions, stirred into activity by the ruthless Goddess of Distress or by the torch of the spoken word cast into the midst of the people.

Revolutions are the produce of passion, not of sober and tranquil reason.

Look, if the Situationists achieved what they wanted, they would be very unhappy and they would have to be Situationists all over again. It's a never-ending process.

Revolution is not a goal in itself.