Civil Unrest Quotes

I hate to say it but I was glad when they shot him. I don’t believe in terrorism or assassination but he could have become the American dictator.

Working for the 'Miami Herald' in 1972, I covered street action for both the Republican and Democratic national conventions in Miami and saw probably the most violent conventions ever - more violent than even 1968 in Chicago.

A little rebellion now and then is a good thing.... Unsuccessful rebellions indeed generally establish the encroachment on the rights of people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governments so mild in their punishment of rebellion so as not to discourage them too much.

The commonwealth of Athens is become a forest of beasts.

The deadliest enemies of nations are not their foreign foes; they always dwell within their borders. And from these internal enemies civilization is always in need of being saved.

I do worry about civil unrest, or complete collapse of society, or having to flee, or Europe falling into a war.

Better a hundred years of tyranny than one day of anarchy.

A riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again. Social justice and progress are the absolute guarantors of riot prevention.

When my country, into which I had just set my foot, was set on fire about my ears, it was time to stir. It was time for every man to stir.

There can be no peace or coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic societies and political institutions. The failure of these institutions to function and the instability of these regimes in Muslim countries, manifest in frequent changes and coups d'état, is most often the consequence of their a priori opposition to Islam, as the fundamental and foremost feeling of the people in those countries.

When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is ... the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.

Don't want that, do they?” She throws back her head and shouts, “Whole country in rebellion? Wouldn't want anything like that!

I wouldn't have expected an audience of ours to burn down our equipment.

There is no American right to loot stores, or to burn buildings, or to fire rifles from the rooftops. That is crime—and crime must be dealt with forcefully and swiftly, and certainly—under law.

Revolt and terror pay a price. Order and law have a cost.

It is my duty to leave nothing undone that I may lawfully do, to pull down this administration....

Muslims have been subjected to so many tyrants and oppressive regimes. That's what the Arab Spring was about, but the problem comes in trying to direct a revolution.

Complete civil disobedience is a state of peaceful rebellion, a refusal to obey every single state-made law.

Peaceful demonstrations are essential to our democratic system. Unfortunately, some individuals have engaged in unlawful and dangerous activity, including arson, rioting, looting, and damaging public and private property.

I'm running because I think the world is falling apart.

the central idea of secession, is the essence of anarchy.

The greater the number of laws and enactments, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

It would serve the Americans right if we emptied the prisons and let the subversives take power. They'd soon show Washington just how much they appreciate good old American values.

I didn’t give the arrests any publicity last night because … that didn’t look right to me…: All the Negroes beat up—and the only people we arrest are the people who beat up the FBI agents. There ought to be some more arrests and that ought to help the situation.

The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation ... until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country.