William O. Douglas Quotes

It is authority that provokes revolution....

Fight the power that be. Fight the power.

Wherever there is a man who exercises authority, there is a man who resists authority!

Old forms of government finally grow so oppressive, that they must be thrown off even at the risk of reigns of terror.

No dictator can last forever. History shows that in the end, people around the dictator bring about change. Of course, a lot of high-ranking officials don't want change because they want to keep power. But there are other good people who want change. I believe they are waiting for the chance.

I have struggled against tyranny. I didn't do that in order to substitute another.

The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of oppression, if they are strong enough, whether by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable.

We know what the birth of a revolution looks like: A student stands before a tank. A fruit seller sets himself on fire. A line of monks link arms in a human chain. Crowds surge, soldiers fire, gusts of rage pull down the monuments of tyrants, and maybe, sometimes, justice rises from the flames.

Power is never so overwhelming that there's no room for resistance.

The man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.

Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

I really hate the people in power. I hate them with every fiber of my being. That is what drives me in almost everything I do.

Every successful revolution puts on in time the robes of the tyrant it has deposed.

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

It is difficult to violently suppress people in the long run, as the example of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries has shown.

He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defence of reason rebels against tyranny has a better title to Defender of the Faith, than George the Third.

Dissidents can't be dissidents forever; we are dissidents because we don't want to be dissidents.

The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it.

Do you trust the government? No? In that case, let’s overthrow it tomorrow.

We will bring imperialism to its knees.

If officials are too forceful, people will revolt.

We do not support rebellion against our rulers even if they are unjust. We do not make supplications against them and do not set any revolution against them.

What has commonly been called rebellion has more often been nothing but a glorious struggle in opposition to the lawless power of rebellious kings and princes

The people in power will not disappear voluntarily, giving flowers to the cops just isn't going to work. This thinking is fostered by the establishment; they like nothing better than love and nonviolence.

Truth is always the enemy of power. And power the enemy of truth.