Victor Davis Hanson Quotes

There comes not seldom a crisis in the life of men, of nations, and of worlds, when the old forms seem ready to decay, and the old rules of action have lost their binding force. The evils of existing systems obscure the blessings that attend them; and, where reform is needed, the cry is raised for subversion

Experience forced on men’s minds the conviction that what had ever been must ever be.

Revolutions are not improvised. They are not made at will by individuals, and not even by the most powerful associations. They come about through force of circumstances, and are independent of any deliberate will or conspiracy.

The more revolutions occur, the less things change.

It is a wrong form of government we are living under, and we, the workers stand for the overthrow of the whole damnable institution.

The men who make revolutions are always despised by those who profit from them.

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

A revolution is generally only evolution--an explosive sequence of events crowded into a short space of time, but leaving more of the ancient regime untouched than usually is at first apparent.

‎What is to prevent, say, an uprising?

Revolutions usually start with enthusiasm and end in tears.

Revolution is an act of love; we are the children of revolution, born to be rebels. It runs in our blood.

The beginning of a revolution is in reality the end of a belief.

But there is only one thing which gathers people into seditious commotion, and that is oppression

I think it's important that we run that tension between the way things are, in terms of the way we're governed, and the way we sort of become complacent.

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

Do you not wonder sometimes, she showed now, sadly, if in some ways they are correct? That we are asking too much of the world?"No," he said. "They're the ones who are asking for too little."

Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom.

I think revolution is always a little bit possible. I think it won't look or sound anything like what we would expect. But I think revolution is very difficult, and I'm not optimistic for any kind of dramatic change.

There can be conscious revolution.

By going from the bottom-up again, we see where successes work, and you can also see where the status quo can be the biggest obstacle or roadblock to success. The kind of entrepreneurs in whom we need to invest are the kind who are willing to fight that status quo, bureaucracy, complacency, and corruption.

You say you want a revolution? Well, you know. We all want to change the world.

Mercy, it's the revolution and I'm in my bathrobe!

The terrible thing is that the crowd that fills the street believes that the world will always be the same and that it is their duty to keep that huge machine running, day and night, forever. This is what comes of a Protestant morality, that I, as a (thank God) typical Spaniard, found unnerving.

More and more, revolution has found itself delivered into the hands of its bureaucrats and doctrinaires on the one hand, and to the enfeebled and bewildered masses on the other.

We do things much the same way as we did 50, 60 or even 70 years ago. The answers may not be wrong, but we haven't experimented to see whether they are or not.