#revolution

In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act. ↗

— George Orwell

#deceit #revolutionary #telling #telling the truth #time

A collective insanity seemed to have seized the nation and turned them into something worse than beasts. The princess de Lamballe, Marie Antoinette's intimate friend, was literally torn to pieces; her head, breasts, and pudenda were paraded on pikes before the windows of the Temple, where the royal family was imprisoned, while a man boasted drunkenly at a cafe that he had eaten the princess' heart, which he probably had. ↗

— J. Christopher Herold

#cannibalism #death #french-revolution #massacre #age

Madame Tallien shared honors with Josephine Beauharnais in being mistress to Barras, an ex-nobleman and ex-terrorist whose appetite for beautiful women, beautiful young men, and money was the only wholesome trait in his character. ↗

— J. Christopher Herold

#french-revolution #napoleon #age

Not all the ravages caused by our merciless age are tangible ones. The subtler forms of destruction, those involving only the human spirit, are the most to be dreaded. ↗

— Paul Bowles

#age

Revolution and youth are closely allied. What can a revolution promise to adults? To some it brings disgrace, to others favor. But even that favor is questionable, for it affects only the worse half of life, and in addition to advantages it also entails uncertainty, exhausting activity and upheaval of settled habits. Youth is substantially better off: it is not burdened by guilt, and the revolution can accept young people in toto. The uncertainty of revolutionary times is an advantage for youth, because it is the world of the fathers that is challenged. How exciting to enter into the age of maturity over the shattered ramparts of the adult world! ↗

— Milan Kundera

#youth #age

Suddenly Ammu hoped that it had been him that Rahel saw him in the march. She hoped it had been him that raised his flag and knotted arm in anger. She hoped that under his careful cloak of cheerfulness he housed a living breathing anger against the smug, ordered world that she raged against. ↗

— Arundhati Roy

#india #rage #revolution #anger

The Revolution introduced me to art, and in turn, art introduced me to the Revolution! ↗

— Albert Einstein

#democracy #freedom #history #hope #individualism

By being natural and sincere, one often can create revolutions without having sought them. ↗

— Christian Dior

#creation #expression #natural #revolution #sincerity

Nevertheless, what was made in the hope of transforming the world need not be rejected because it failed to do so – otherwise, one would also have to throw out a good deal of the greatest painting and poetry of the nineteenth century. An objective political failure can still work as a model of intellectual affirmation or dissent. ↗

— Robert Hughes

#artists #creativity #dissent #failure #revolution

The link between literacy and revolutions is a well-known historical phenomenon. The three great revolutions of modern European history -- the English, the French and the Russian -- all took place in societies where the rate of literacy was approaching 50 per cent. Literacy had a profound effect on the peasant mind and community. It promotes abstract thought and enables the peasant to master new skills and technologies, Which in turn helps him to accept the concept of progress that fuels change in the modern world. ↗

— Orlando Figes

#peasants #revolutionary-wars #change