James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)
1870s, Speech (1879)
“Insurrection, n. An unsuccessful revolution. Disaffection's failure to substitute misrule for bad government.”
— Ambrose Bierce, book The Devil's Dictionary
The Devil's Dictionary (1911)
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Ambrose Bierce204
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu… 1842–1914Related quotes
“On average, successful people have had many more failures that unsuccessful people.”
Daniel Levitin (1957) American psychologist
This is Your Brain on Music (2006)
“A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”
Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China
Chapter 2 https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/works/red-book/ch02.htm, originally published in Report on an investigation of the peasant movement in Hunan http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-1/mswv1_2.htm (March 1927), Selected Works, Vol. I, p. 28.<br> https://www.marxists.org/chinese/big5/nonmarxists/mao/19270300.htm.湖南農民運動考察報告 <br class="br">Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong (The Little Red Book) <br class="br">Context: A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery. It cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.
Max Stirner book The Ego and Its Own
S. Byington, trans. (1913), p. 421
The Ego and Its Own (1844)
Context: Revolution is aimed at new arrangements; insurrection [Empörung] leads us no longer to let ourselves be arranged, but to arrange ourselves, and set no glittering hopes on “institutions.”
Vladimir Lenin (1870–1924) Russian politician, led the October Revolution
Collected Works, Vol. 26, pp. 22–27.
Collected Works
William McKinley (1843–1901) American politician, 25th president of the United States (in office from 1897 to 1901)
“Good government is no substitute for self-government.”
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India
Young India (2 September 1920) p. 1
1920s
Context: For me the only training in Swaraj we need is the ability to defend ourselves against the whole world and to live our natural life in perfect freedom, even though it may be full of defects. Good government is no substitute for self-government.
“Good government can be no substitute for self-government.”
Muhammad Zafrulla Khan (1893–1985) Pakistani diplomat
Proceedings of the 8th session of the UN General Assembly, 1953 http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/department/history-histoire/dcer/details-en.asp?intRefid=1940
“Bad principles are not a good substitute for no principles.”
Michael Kinsley (1951) American political journalist, commentator television host
Donald Trump is actually a fascist (December 9, 2016)
Context: If I’m correct that Trump actually has a governing philosophy, that’s a bad thing, not a good thing. If he actually has principles to guide him through those famous swamps he plans to drain, that’s alarming, not reassuring. Bad principles are not a good substitute for no principles. Four or eight years of bad principles may make no principles look pretty good.