“Revolution is like the daughters of Pelias: it cuts humanity to pieces in order to rejuvenate it.”

— Georg Büchner , Danton's Death

Act II.
Dantons Tod (Danton's Death) (1835)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Revolution is like the daughters of Pelias: it cuts humanity to pieces in order to rejuvenate it." by Georg Büchner?

Georg Büchner 43

German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose 1813–1837

Related quotes

“In the beginning, I was put off by the harshness of German. Someone would order a piece of cake, and it sounded as if it were an actual order, like, "Cut the cake and lie facedown in that ditch between the cobbler and the little girl."”

David Sedaris book Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

I'm guessing this comes from having watched too many Second World War movies.

Essay, "Easy, tiger". p.80
Source: Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls (2013)

“Sometimes to achieve greatness, you do, you have to cut off a little piece of yourself no matter how much it hurts, in order to grow, in order to move on. It takes courage and I admire that, you know?”

movie Legend (2015)

“When you cut pieces out of the truth to avoid looking like a fool you end up looking like a moron instead.”

Robin Hobb book Assassin's Apprentice

Source: Assassin's Apprentice

“One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“The spirit of Revolution should always permeate the soul of humanity, so that the reactionary forces may not accumulate to check its eternal onward march. Old order should change, always and ever, yielding place to new, so that one “good” order may not corrupt the world. It is in this sense that we raise the shout “Long Live Revolution.””

Bhagat Singh (1907–1931) Indian revolutionary

Letter published in The Tribune (25 December 1929), with some reference to lines from Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson
Context: Revolution did not necessarily involve sanguinary strife. It was not a cult of bomb and pistol. They may sometimes be mere means for its achievement. No doubt they play a prominent part in some movements, but they do not — for that very reason — become one and the same thing. A rebellion is not a revolution. It may ultimately lead to that end.
The sense in which the word Revolution is used in that phrase, is the spirit, the longing for a change for the better. The people generally get accustomed to the established order of things and begin to tremble at the very idea of a change. It is this lethargical spirit that needs be replaced by the revolutionary spirit. Otherwise degeneration gains the upper hand and the whole humanity is led stray by the reactionary forces. Such a state of affairs leads to stagnation and paralysis in human progress. The spirit of Revolution should always permeate the soul of humanity, so that the reactionary forces may not accumulate to check its eternal onward march. Old order should change, always and ever, yielding place to new, so that one “good” order may not corrupt the world. It is in this sense that we raise the shout “Long Live Revolution.”