Michael Parenti Quotes

There's nothing automatic about political change, about liberation.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

Revolutions are the periods of history when individuals count most.

No real social change has ever been brought about without a revolution... revolution is but thought carried into action.

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it fall.

Revolution is born as a social entity within the oppressor society.

We did not have a revolution in order to have a democracy.

“Order prevails in Berlin!” You foolish lackeys! Your “order” is built on sand. Tomorrow the revolution will “rise up again, clashing its weapons,” and to your horror it will proclaim with trumpets blazing: I was, I am, I shall be!

Revolution, not elections!

Agitate, agitate, agitate.

It is not leaders who make movements; it is movements that make leaders.

If god is the root cause for our degradation destroy that god. If it is religion destroy it. If it is Manu Darma, Gita, or any other Mythology (Purana), burn them to ashes. If it is temple, tank, or festival, boycott them. Finally if it is our politics, come forward to declare it openly

Usually the impetus of a revolution is a relatively small group with positive goals but also a larger collection of people with resentments.

It is more pleasant and useful to go through the 'experience of the revolution' than to write about it.

Revolution looks at the intersection ahead and pushes people to do the right thing.

Nothing I study makes me think we will survive this century. And yet why am I so happy? Because it's not too late. Just get off your ass and work for revolution.

A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past.

Solidarity was the movement that turned the direction of history, I think.

You can bring down governments, you can do a lot of things that are in your own interests even though liberals will get very antsy when you start talking about it.

We talking about revolution because that's the era that you're caught in.

There never was a social change in America without angry people at the heart.

The walls, the bars, the guns and the guards can never encircle or hold down the idea of the people.

Our task, of course, is to transmute the anger that is affliction into the anger that is determination to bring about change. I think, in fact, that one could give that as a definition of revolution.

All great movements are popular movements. They are the volcanic eruptions of human passions and emotions, stirred into activity by the ruthless Goddess of Distress or by the torch of the spoken word cast into the midst of the people.

Revolution is a phase, a mood, like spring, and just as spring has its buds and showers, so revolution has its ebullience, its bravery, its hope, and its solidarity. Some of these things pass.