{"quotes":[{"text":"In actual fact our Russian experience—when I use the word 'Russian' I always differentiate it from the word 'Soviet'—I have in mind even pre-Soviet, pre-revolutinoary experience—in actual fact it is vitally important for the West, because by some chance of history we have trodden the same path seventy or eighty years before the West. And now it is with a strange sensation that we look at what is happening to you; many social phenomena that happened in Russia before its collapse are being repeated. Our experience of life is of vital importance to the West, but I am not convinced that you are capable of assimilating it without having gone through it to the end yourselves.You know, one could quote here many examples: for one, a certain retreat by the older generation, yielding their intellectual leadership to the younger generation. It is against the natural order of things for those who are youngest, with the least experience of life, to have the greatest influence in directing the life of society. One can say then that this is what forms the spirit of the age, the current of public opinion, when people in authority, well known professors and scientists, are reluctant to enter into an argument even when they hold a different opinion. It is considered embarrassing to put forward one's counterarguments, lest one become involved. And so there is a certain abdication of responsibility, which is typical here where there is complete freedom....There is now a universal adulation of revolutionaries, the more so the more extreme they are! Similarly, before the revolution, we had in Russia, if not a cult of terror, then a fierce defense of terrorists. People in good positions—intellectuals, professors, liberals—spent a great deal of effort, anger, and indignation in defending terrorists.","author":"Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn","tags":["revolutionaries","russia","soviet-russia","soviet-union","terrorism","youth-leaders"],"id":16268,"author_id":"Aleksandr+Solzhenitsyn"},{"text":"When they began, they could not have thought that it would end like this, because their time seemed to them as simple as a flame. We know now that it was a very complicated time and that they were more complicated people than they knew.","author":"Murray Kempton","tags":["1930s","communism","marxism","revolution","revolutionaries","socialism"],"id":66027,"author_id":"Murray+Kempton"},{"text":"Religion, which was obviously created to give meaning and purpose to people, has become part of the oppression. This is true in both Eastern and Western religious traditions. The Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad were all revolutionaries who critiqued and attempted to dismantle the corrupt societal traditions of their time. Yet their teachings, like most things in human society, have been distorted and co-opted by the confused and power-hungry patriarchal tradition. What were wonce the creation myths of ancient cultures, have become doctrines of oppression. More blood has been spilled and more people oppressed in the name of religion than for any other reason in history.","author":"Noah Levine","tags":["blood","corruption","cultures","jesus","muhammad","oppression","religion","revolutionaries","tradition","war"],"id":135986,"author_id":"Noah+Levine"},{"text":"Legislators and revolutionaries who promise equality and liberty at the same time, are either psychopaths or mountebanks.","author":"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe","tags":["equality","legislators","liberty","revolutionaries"],"id":142164,"author_id":"Johann+Wolfgang+von+Goethe"},{"text":"The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man.","author":"Huey P. Newton","tags":["anarchy","fate","politics","resignation","revolution","revolutionaries","war"],"id":151889,"author_id":"Huey+P.+Newton"},{"text":"That is what revolutionaries do. We sacrifice ourselves to save others.","author":"Viet Thanh Nguyen","tags":["revolutionaries","sacrifice","saving-the-world"],"id":226839,"author_id":"Viet+Thanh+Nguyen"},{"text":"The Bolsheviks killed their own most loyal supporters at Kronstadt in 1921, because they failed to understand that the revolution no longer required revolutionaries, but obedient servants.","author":"Peter Hitchens","tags":["atheism","bolsheviks","god","religion","revolutionaries","revolutions","servants"],"id":235056,"author_id":"Peter+Hitchens"},{"text":"Like any dissidents they were neurotic archivists. Agree, disagree, show no interest in or obsess over their narrative of history, you couldn't say their didn't shore it up with footnotes and research.","author":"China Miéville","tags":["archivists","dissidents","research","revolution","revolutionaries"],"id":247176,"author_id":"China+Mi%C3%A9ville"},{"text":"Those who seek to aspire are those who achieve Greatness.","author":"Saim .A. Cheeda","tags":["achieve","aspire","evolve","greatness","leaders","revolutionaries","seek","strive-for-more","take-actions-on-your-dreams","those"],"id":253576,"author_id":"Saim+.A.+Cheeda"},{"text":"Be the start of something that is good, revolutionary and powerful. Everything after that is a bonus!","author":"Carlos Wallace","tags":["carlos-wallace","leader","leaders","leadership","leadership-characteristics","leadership-development","leadership","leadership-traits","revolutionaries","revolutionary","revolutionary-tails"],"id":305161,"author_id":"Carlos+Wallace"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":15,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}