Ian Lustick Quotes

I'm not going to pontificate and tell you to execute your government at dawn, but it wouldn't be a bad idea.

The problem with leaderless uprisings taking over is that you don't always know what you get at the other end. If you are not careful you could replace a bad government with one much worse!

All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door.

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.

A revolution is impossible without a revolutionary situation; furthermore, not every revolutionary situation leads to revolution.

Dangerous in its political aspect, the Commune is far more dangerous in the social.

If Trump wins, I think the whole thing is going to blow up, and we're going to start over, and that's always a good thing to do.

America in 2016 is on the path to becoming what Germany was in 1867.

I have no idea how long Putin will last. The good news is, Putin doesn't know either. It will be sudden and it won't be peaceful. He has burned his bridges.

The Middle East has gone through periods of turmoil before. In the 1950s and 1960s, there were revolutions. When monarchies were collapsing in a number of countries, we had radicals and we had Nasserism. Today it's a little bit more complicated.

Many of the fights that are going on are not ones that the United States has either started or have a role in. The Shia-- Sunni split, the dictatorships that have suppressed people's aspirations, the increasing globalization without any real safety valve for people to have a better life. We saw that in Egypt. We saw a dictator overthrown, we saw Muslim Brotherhood president installed and then we saw him ousted and the army back.

At the heart of every major political upheaval lies a fiscal revolution.

This is taking place inside Europe. This is taking place inside a once great nation. The nation that invented democracy. We are on the edge of total social breakdown. And frankly, as far as the euro is concerned and the austerity measures are concerned, the medicine is killing the patient.

The revolution has overthrown the monarchy, true! But perhaps this means that the revolution simply has driven the skin disease inside the organism.

It seems that the rebels found the chaos of transition more difficult to accept than the tyranny they had known before. They joyfully welcomed back authority-even oppressive authority-for it was less painful for them than uncertainty.

There was reason to fear that the Revolution, like Saturn, might devour in turn each one of her children.

I fear we may live to see another revolution.

It's going to be a combination Scopes trial, revolution in the streets, Woodstock Festival and People's Park, all rolled into one.

It is bad governments, not bad people, who cause revolutions.

First, what is a revolution? Sometimes I'm inclined to believe that many of our people are using this word "revolution" loosely, without taking careful consideration [of] what this word actually means, and what its historic characteristics are. When you study the historic nature of revolutions, the motive of a revolution, the objective of a revolution, and the result of a revolution, and the methods used in a revolution, you may change words. You may devise another program. You may change your goal and you may change your mind.

Toppling secular dictators in the Middle East has only led to chaos and the rise of radical Islam.

a greater evil than the restoration of the Bourbons to the world in general, and England in particular, can hardly happen.

As far as world war goes, there are really only two possibilities: either war provokes revolution, or revolution averts war.

I think that the government of [Nicolas] Maduro has argued to stage a coup in Venezuela, that this is obviously a coup against the country's democratic institutions.

A revolution is sometimes necessary, but if revolutions become habitual the country in which they take place is going down-hill