The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty.

In revolutions men fall and rise. Long before this war is over, much as you hear me praised now, you may hear me cursed and insulted.

Governments are not overthrown by the poor, who have no power, but by the rich—when they are insulted by their inferiors and cannot obtain justice.

Insurgents are like conquerors: they must go forward; the moment they are stopped, they are lost.

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.

To cast aside obedience, and by popular violence to incite revolt, is treason, not against man only, but against God.

Rebellion is no less a sin than divination.

Revolutions are always verbose.

The main object of a revolution is the liberation of man, not the interpretation and application of some transcendental ideology.

Revolutionaries are greater sticklers for formality than conservatives.

Revolutions have never lightened the burden of tyranny, they have only shifted it to another shoulder.

I began revolution with eighty-two men. If I had to do it again, I do it with ten or fifteen and absolute faith. It does not matter how small you are if you have faith and plan of action.

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.