“Revolution meant shattering one structure and creating another one, but shattering was easier than creating, and so the two parts of the act were not necessarily fated to be equally successful. In that sense, building a revolution was like building an arch; until both columns were there, and the keystone in place, practically any disruption could bring the whole thing crashing down.”
“Thus did the typewriters clack through the night, until that historic document had been crafted which guaranteed for all Russians freedom of conscience (Article 13), freedom of expression (Article 14), freedom of assembly (Article 15), and freedom to have any of these rights revoked should they be “utilized to the detriment of the socialist revolution (Article 23)!”
“I am not interested in the taxes I pay. I am interested in the laws that will imprison me or you. Something that direct. Laws that will imprison many and liberate the rest. The neoethics of a large group, a majority, can and must be legislature.”
“In all these ways this world is conserved. We live by these people, we are friends with them etc., and sometimes we forgive them —that way we all live more easily. We, make it possible, this contingency, this world.”
“Rebellion is, by nature, limited in scope. It is no more than an incoherent pronouncement. Revolution, on the contrary, originates in the realm of ideas. Specifically, it is the injection of ideas into historical experience, while rebellion is only the movement that leads from individual experience into the realm of ideas. While even the collective history of a movement of rebellion is always that of a fruitless struggle with facts, of an obscure protest which involves neither methods nor reasons, a revolution is an attempt to shape actions to ideas, to fit the world into a theoretic frame. That is why rebellion kills men while revolution destroys both men and principles.”
“Acquiescence in humiliation—that is the true characteristic of twentieth-century revolutionaries, who place the revolution and the Church of man above themselves. Kaliayev proves, on the contrary, that though the revolution is a necessary means, it is not a sufficient end. In this way he elevates man instead of degrading him. It is Kaliayev and his Russian and German comrades who, in the history of the world, really oppose Hegel, who first recognizes universal recognition as necessary and then as insufficient. Appearances did not suffice for him.”
“Part of how they make you obey is by making obedience seem peaceful, while resistance is violence. But really, either choice is about violence, one way or another.”
“Every culture is first and foremost a particular experience of time, and no new culture is possible without an alteration in this experience. The original task of a genuine revolution, therefore, is never merely to change the world , but also - and above all - to change time .”
“Starting a revolution is like opening a tin can, though,” Siyavash said to her. “You never know what you end up with when you get to the bottom!”
“Eat the rich! Burn their bones to keep warm! Redistribute their stolen resources!”
“The revolution doesn t carry the bible. The resistance doesn t carry the American flag. Feel how you wanna feel about it.”
“I want to live in a society where we are all liberated. This is what my feminism looks like”
“We make the revolutionary history, telling the past as we have learned it mouth-to-mouth, telling the present as we see, know, and feel it in our heats and with our words.”
“To deprive the bourgeoisie not of its art but of its concept of art, this is the precondition of a revolutionary argument.”
“It’s just I finally get what revolution means. It’s maximum volatility with no hedging. And it’s insider trading too! Because, since I know in advance you’re going to default your people, I can buy put options up the wazoo before the IPPI goes down! It’s totally illegal! I finally get why revolution is illegal.”
“Let us speak plainly. Historically, the errors committed by a truly revolutionary movement are infinitely more fruitful than the infallibility of the cleverest Central Committee.”
“.. чего я не мог понять и что надеялся выяснить у комиссара, так это почему охранники боятся его - и, шире, почему вообще революционеры боятся друг друга.”