Malcolm X Quotes

For me, 'revolution' simply means radical change.

We are not the ones who create revolutions. It is the imperialist system and its allies, internal allies, the ones who create revolution.

Don't accept the old order. Get rid of it.

Revolution is the festival of the oppressed.

Revolution is not a goal in itself.

Revolt is not reform, and one revolutionary administration is not good government.

A rebellion is not a revolution. It may ultimately lead to that end.

An oppressed people will always rise.

I was sympathetic to virtually all groups that wanted to get away from the old system.

a government which goes counter to the will of the nation must be overthrown at once... It is dangerous to drive the people to despair and force them to demand by violence that which they as yet seek only by constitutional means.

The revolution is a torrent which sweeps aside those who resist it.

You can either have revolution or you can have revival.

The right of revolution is the inherent right of a people to cast out their rulers, change their policy, or effect radical reforms in their system of government or institutions, by force or a general uprising, when the legal and constitutional methods of making such changes have proved inadequate, or are so obstructed as to be unavailable.

The revolt against any oppression usually goes to an opposite extreme for a time; and that is right and necessary.

Revolution is always delightful in the preliminary stages. So long as it's a question of getting rid of the people at the top.

… the most sacred right [revolution] to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better.

It is almost never when a state of things is the most detestable that it is smashed, but when, beginning to improve, it permits men to breathe, to reflect, to communicate their thoughts with each other, and to gauge by what they already have the extent of their rights and their grievances. The weight, although less heavy, seems then all the more unbearable.

When people rise, they must have a goal worthy of them. Must paltry goods be of concern to them?... The people must rise up not to collect sugar, but to bring down the tyrants.

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

Why does the guerrilla fighter fight? We must come to the inevitable conclusion that the guerrilla fighter is a social reformer, that he takes up arms responding to the angry protest of the people against their oppressors, and that he fights in order to change the social system that keeps all his unarmed brothers in ignominy and misery.

I am not a politician. I am just a simple person who has come to break down this system.

A revolution is not a painless march to the gates of freedom and justice. It is a struggle between rage and hope, between the temptation to destroy and the desire to build.

Revolution means turning the wheel.

Tomorrow the revolution will already 'raise itself with a rattle' and announce with fanfare, to your terror: I was, I am, I will be!