Robert Fisk Quotes

The 'Arab Spring' is the most spectacular example of the dispersal of power.

When Tunisians overthrew Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 29 days and Egyptians Hosni Mubarak in 18 days, it was an appropriate rebuke to dictators and Bin Laden.

The most striking thing is that even before Osama bin Laden was killed, he seemed largely irrelevant to the Arab Spring.

History dictates that unresponsive governments force ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

We are banned in the Muslim world because we want to discard the rulers in the Muslim world to the dustbin of history.

The Tunisian revolution left every Arab dictator in fear; Egypt's toppling of Mubarak left them terrified - even one of the U.S.' best allies in the region could fall.

The Arab Spring is a powerful and compelling response not only to an age of tyranny but also to the remnant chains of imperial influence.

All revolutions are treason until they are accomplished.

Revolution is indeed a violent process. But if it is to result only in a change of dictatorship, in a shifting of names and political personalities, then it is hardly worth while.

I just long for the day when I wake up and find that the Saudi royal family are swinging from lamp-posts.

A government creates its own revolution. There can be no revolt without it.

Every revolution, bloody or not, has two phases. The first phase is defined by the struggle for freedom, the second by the struggle for power and revenge on the votaries of the ancien regime.

In crises, the old is dying and the new has not been born. Hence, the revolts we are witnessing in Egypt and Tunisia, which may yet extend to other countries in the region, are full of uncertainties.

The Arab Spring showed that people are not going to wait for an American president to make good on his big talk about democracy and human rights; they are going to fight for those rights themselves and overthrow pro-American dictators who stand in their way.

All the big revolutions, whether it's the Industrial Revolution, the Arab Spring, those changes happened by economic and social shifts brought about by the people's voices, and those things weren't voted for. Most of our changes today are brought about through technology, not by voting.

None of us is certain about the outcome of the Arab Spring.

The Arab Awakening or Arab Spring has transformed the geopolitical landscape.

Certainly we've seen the enormous changes across the whole of the Middle East. The democratic genie is out of the bottle.

The Arab Spring I think we will look back whether it's two years, five years, ten or fifteen. And say it's a good thing.

Russia probably knows the true cost of revolutions better than most other countries.

As you know with the Arab Spring, there were no dividends.

I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi royal family are swinging from lampposts and that they've got a proper government that represents the people of Saudi Arabia.

The end of some of the harshest dictatorships has not necessarily spelled a more free world. The extinction of the thing we despise is not giving rise to the democracy we hoped for.

The Arab Spring reminds me a bit of the decolonisation process where one country gets independence, and everybody else wants it.

The Arab Spring is a true phenomenon. Embrace Arab Spring; embrace the aspiration for freedom of the people of Egypt, Syria, and Yemen.