Quotes about rebel (373 quotes) | Quotes of famous people

“Whenever you honor the honorable, you possess them. Whenever you honor the ignoble, they rebel.”

Al-Mutanabbi (915–965) Arabic poet from the Abbasid era

“They stick you with those names, those labels -- ‘rebel’ or whatever; whatever they like to use. Because they need a label; they need a name. They need something to put the price tag on the back of.”

Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician

“Every woman is a rebel, and usually in wild revolt against herself.”

Oscar Wilde A Woman of No Importance

Source: A Woman of No Importance

“Look, even a rebel like Jainab has also surrendered.”

Begum Rokeya (1880–1932) Bengali feminist writer and social worker

Padmarag (1924) https://dev.thedailystar.net/news-detail-165630
Context: If today I get back with you, our conservative grandmothers will say to other women rebelling against gender injustices, Look, even a rebel like Jainab has also surrendered. I don't believe that only married life can be the ultimate success for women.

“I was just walking across the street . . . this guy [a porn producer] stops and he gets off his car and he gives me his card, and i thought about it for about two weeks then you made the mistake of saying yes and going in. and . . . yeah, I did it for about three months, and as soon as I started to gain popularity, that's when I was like, "OK I need to get the F out of here, this is not what I was trying to do whatsoever", I just wanted to let loose and rebel.”

Mia Khalifa (1993) American social media personality and former porn actress

Guy , Cars

“Until they become conscious, they will never rebel”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“You're only a rebel from the waist downwards,' he told her.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious.”

George Orwell book 1984

Source: 1984

“My mind rebels at stagnation, give me problems, give me work!”

Arthur Conan Doyle book The Sign of the Four

Source: The Sign of Four

Problem

“If you hate your parents, the man or the establishment, don't show them up by getting wasted and wrapping your car around a tree. If you really want to rebel against your parents, out-learn them, outlive them, and know more than they do.”

Henry Rollins (1961) American singer-songwriter

Hate , Cars , Parent , Tree

“Herb… herb is a plant, you know? And when me check it, me can't find no reason. All them say is, 'it make you rebel'. Against what?”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

As recorded in filmed interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsfYAJ3dQyY&feature=player_embedded (1979) with Dylan Taite in Aotearoa, New Zealand
Context: All dese governments and dis this and that, these people that say they're here to help, why them say you cannot smoke the herb? Herb... herb is a plant, you know? And when me check it, me can't find no reason. All them say is, 'it make you rebel'. Against what?

“You can't save the world… save YOUR heart. Be a catalyst & create a life
where you are powerful. Rebel. Be happy & allow others happiness.”

Andrew Biersack (1990) American singer-songwriter

World , Life , Heart , Happiness

“He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops.”

William Saroyan (1908–1981) American writer

The William Saroyan Reader (1958)
Context: The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is. He is discontented with everything and everybody. The writer is everybody's best friend and only true enemy — the good and great enemy. He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops.

“So few want to be rebels anymore. And out of those few, most, like myself, scare easily.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

“if we don’t rebel, if we’re not physically in an active rebellion, then it’s spiritual death.”

Chris Hedges (1956) American journalist

Death

“My 'morals' were sound, even a bit puritanic, but when a hidebound old deacon inveighed against dancing I rebelled. By the time of graduation I was still a 'believer' in orthodox religion, but had strong questions which were encouraged at Harvard. In Germany I became a freethinker and when I came to teach at an orthodox Methodist Negro school I was soon regarded with suspicion, especially when I refused to lead the students in public prayer. When I became head of a department at Atlanta, the engagement was held up because again I balked at leading in prayer. I refused to teach Sunday school. When Archdeacon Henry Phillips, my last rector, died, I flatly refused again to join any church or sign any church creed. From my 30th year on I have increasingly regarded the church as an institution which defended such evils as slavery, color caste, exploitation of labor and war..”

W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963) American sociologist, historian, activist and writer

Source: The Autobiography of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of Its First Century

War , School , Religion , Color

“Every woman is a rebel.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“Intellectuals are rebels, not revolutionaries.”

César Vallejo (1892–1938) Peruvian writer

Los intelectuales son rebeldes, pero no revolucionarios.
Source: Aphorisms (2002), p. 18

“What kind of grad student do you take? “I never take a straight A student. A real scientist tends to be critical, and somewhere along the line, they had to rebel against their teachers.”

Lynn Margulis (1938–2011) American evolutionary biologist

Teachers

“We should not forget that our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past—Jefferson and Paine, Emerson and Thoreau—while we silence the rebels of the present.”

Henry Steele Commager (1902–1998) American historian

Source: Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954), p. 147

Pain , Silence , Past , Forgetting

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them; disagree with them; glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Used in the Apple "Think Different" marketing campaign and sometimes attributed to Kerouac on the internet, perhaps because it evokes his famous quote from On the Road: "The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"" The original script was actuality written by Rob Siltanen with participation of Lee Clow. In "The Real Story Behind Apple's 'Think Different' Campaign" in Forbes (14 December 2011) http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2011/12/14/the-real-story-behind-apples-think-different-campaign/ Rob Siltanen states: "I wrote everything..." "I shared my scripts with Lee, and he thought they were good. He made a couple tweaks..."
Misattributed

Motivational , People , World , Quotes

“One cannot reign innocently: the insanity of doing so is evident. Every king is a rebel and a usurper.”

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (1767–1794) military and political leader

On ne peut point régner innocemment : la folie en est trop évidente. Tout roi est un rebelle et un usurpateur.
Sur le jugement de Louis XVI (1er discours) http://www.royet.org/nea1789-1794/archives/discours/stjust_jugement_louis16_1_13_11_92.htm, speech to the National Convention (November 13, 1792).

“Every valuable human being must be a radical and a rebel, for what he must aim at is to make things better than they are.”

Niels Bohr (1885–1962) Danish physicist

As quoted in The World of the Atom (1966) by Henry Abraham Boorse and Lloyd Motz, p. 741

“He that rebels against reason is a real rebel, but he that in defence of reason, rebels against tyranny, has a better title to "defender of the faith" than George the Third.”

Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist

The Crisis No. III.
1770s, The American Crisis (1776–1783)

Faith

“The constellations this year seem unfavourable to rebels.”

Cesare Borgia (1475–1507) Duke of Romagna and former Catholic cardinal

Cesare to Macchiavelli (October, 1502), as quoted by Rafael Sabatini, 'The Life of Cesare Borgia', Chapter XV: Macchiavelli's Legation

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American entrepreneur and co-founder of Apple Inc.

Apple Inc. "Think different" advertising company.
2000s

Motivational , People , World , Quotes

“There's just one country. You and I, we're citizens of that country. I'm fighting to protect it from armed rebels. From you.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

To Alexander H. Stephens, Lincoln http://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Lincoln.html (2012).
In fiction, Lincoln (2012)

Fight , Country

“I am rebelling against imprisonment, I am rebelling against tyranny of the mind, I am rebelling against a collection of machines with interchangeable faces. Above all, I am rebelling against my own ignorance and your deliberate deception.”

Edmund Cooper (1926–1982) British writer

The Overman Culture (1971)

“I'm just a Rock and Roll Rebel,
I tell you no lies,
they say I worship the devil,
they must be stupid or blind”

Ozzy Osbourne (1948) English heavy metal vocalist and songwriter

Rock and Roll Rebel, written by Ozzy Osbourne.
Song lyrics, Bark at the Moon (1983)

Stupidity

“In my opinion the religion that makes men rebel and fight against their government is not the genuine article, nor is the religion the right sort which reconciles them to the idea of eating their bread in the sweat of other men's faces. It is not the kind to get to heaven on.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

As quoted in Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, 1847-1865 https://archive.org/details/recollectionsab00lamogoog (1895), by Ward Hill Lamon, p. 90
1860s

Men , Religion , Idea , Fight

“August 25, 1538, the conversation fell upon witches who spoil milk, eggs, and butter in farm yards. Dr. Luther said: “I should have no compassion on these witches; I would burn all of them. We read in the old law, that the priests threw the first stone at such malefactors, `Tis said this stolen butter turns rancid, and falls to the ground when any one goes to eat it. He who attempts to counteract and chastise these witches, is himself corporally plagued and tormented by their master, the devil. Sundry schoolmasters and ministers have often experienced this. Our ordinary sins offend and anger God. What, then, must be his wrath against witchcraft, which we may justly designate high treason against divine majesty, a revolt against the infinite power of God. The jurisconsults who have so learnedly and pertinently treated of rebellion, affirm that the subject who rebels against his sovereign, is worthy of death. Does not witchcraft, then, merit death, which is a revolt of the creature against the Creator, a denial to God of the authority it accords to the demon?””

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Statement of 25 August 1538, in Table-Talk, as translated by William Hazlitt (1857), DLXXVII

Death , God , Law , Reading

“As the Bajauris were rebels and at enmity with the people of Islam, and as, by reason of the heathenish and hostile customs prevailing in their midst, the very name of Islam was rooted out from their tribe, they were put to general massacre and their wives and children were made captive. At a guess more than 3000 men went to their death; as the fight did not reach to the eastern side of the fort, a few got away there. The fort taken, we entered and inspected it. On the walls, in houses, streets and alleys, the dead lay, in what numbers! Comers and goers to and fro were passing over the bodies… With mind easy about the important affairs of the Bajaur fort, we marched, on Tuesday the 9th of Muharram, one kuroh (2m) down the dale of Bajaur and ordered that a tower of heads should be set up on the rising ground. On Wednesday the 10th of Muharram, we rode out to visit the Bajaur fort. There was a wine-party in Khawaja Kalan's house, several goat-skins of wine having been brought.”

Babur (1483–1530) 1st Mughal Emperor

Babur-Nama, translated into English by A.S. Beveridge, New Delhi reprint, 1979, pp. 370-71.

Death , Men , Hostility , Children

“I believe in property rights, but I believe in them as adjuncts to, and not as substitutes for human rights. I believe that normally the rights of property coincide with the rights of man; but where they do not, then the rights of man must be; put above the rights of property. I believe in shaping the ends of government to protect property; but wherever the alternative must be faced, I am for man and not for property. I am far from underestimating the importance of dividends, but I rank dividends below human character. I know well that if there is not sufficient prosperity the people will in the end rebel against any system, no matter how exalted morally; and reformers must not bring upon the people permanent economic ruin, or the reforms themselves will go down in the ruin.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1910s, The Progressives, Past and Present (1910)

People

“Rebellion against technology and civilization is real rebellion, a real attack on the values of the existing system. But the green anarchists, anarcho-primitivists, and so forth (The "GA Movement") have fallen under such heavy influence from the left that their rebellion against civilization has to great extent been neutralized. Instead of rebelling against the values of civilization, they have adopted many civilized values themselves and have constructed an imaginary picture of primitive societies that embodies these civilized values.”

Theodore Kaczynski (1942) American domestic terrorist, mathematician and anarchist

Letter to M. K.
The Road to Revolution (2008)

“When we understand that privileged people derive material benefits from the exploitation of oppressed people, and that this means we benefit from the violence used to keep them down, we cannot sincerely condemn them for violently rebelling against the structural violence that privileges us.”

Peter Gelderloos (1982) American anarchist

Peter Gelderloos, How Nonviolence Protects the State http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/peter-gelderloos-how-nonviolence-protects-the-state (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2007), 37.

People , Understanding , Sincerity

“The fate of those of their neighbours who had already rebelled and had been subdued was no lesson to them; their own prosperity could not dissuade them from affronting danger; but blindly confident in the future, and full of hopes beyond their power though not beyond their ambition, they declared war and made their decision to prefer might to right, their attack being determined not by provocation but by the moment which seemed propitious. The truth is that great good fortune coming suddenly and unexpectedly tends to make a people insolent; in most cases it is safer for mankind to have success in reason than out of reason; and it is easier for them, one may say, to stave off adversity than to preserve prosperity.”

Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War

Book III, 3.39-[3]
History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III

Fate , War , People , Truth

“Jesus is a rebel, just as Buddha or Lao Tzu is. When the church starts establishing itself it starts destroying the rebelliousness of Jesus, Buddha, because rebellion cannot go with an establishment.”

Rajneesh (1931–1990) Godman and leader of the Rajneesh movement

The Mustard Seed (1975)

“Be it known however that I am no advocate of those Mohammedans who behaved undutifully, and joined in the Rebellion: on the contrary I hold their conduct in utter abhorrence, as being in the highest degree criminal, and wholly inexcusable; because at that momentous crisis it was imperatively their duty, a duty enjoined by the precepts of our religion, to identify themselves heartily with the Christians and to espouse their cause; seeing that they have, like ourselves, been favoured with a revelation from Heaven, and believe in the Prophets, and hold sacred the word of God in His holy book, which is also an object of faith with us. It was therefore needful and proper, that where the blood of Christians was spilt, there should also have mingled with it that of Mohammedans; and those who shrunk from manifesting such devotedness, and sided with the rebels wilfully disobeyed the injunctions of religion, besides proving themselves ungrateful to their salt, and thereby incurring the severe displeasure of Government, a fact that is patent to every peasant...”

Syed Ahmed Khan (1820–1898) Indian educator and politician

quoted in Arun Shourie - The World of Fatwas Or The Sharia in Action (2012, Harper Collins)

Religion , God , Faith , Books

“The fallen angels took full responsibility. I don't think anyone tempted the devil to rebel in the first place. He just made up his own mind.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Angels , Thinking

“I exist thanks to the decision of my parents, born in Poland, to rebel against the rabbis and immigrate to Israel.”

Shulamit Aloni (1928–2014) Israeli politician

שולמית אלוני, ישושון בלי דם ואש, דבר, 21 באוקטובר 1977 https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/dav/1977/10/21/01/article/151?&dliv=none&e=-------he-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxTI--------------1&utm_source=he.wikipedia.org&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=%22שולמית+אלוני%22&utm_content=itonut

Parent , Decision

“He was, after all, the ultimate rebel -- it takes a lot of cojones to stand up to Zeus.”

Jasper Fforde book The Big Over Easy

Source: The Big Over Easy

“I'm not messy. I'm rebelling against folding.”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: How to Kill a Rock Star

“When I need to identify rebels, I look for men with principles”

Frank Herbert book God Emperor of Dune

Source: God Emperor of Dune

Men

“Every man who has shown the world the way to beauty, to true culture, has been a rebel, a 'universal' without patriotism, without home who has found his people everywhere.”

Chaim Potok (1929–2002) American rabbi

People , World , Beauty , Way

“To rebel against being born a woman seemed as foolish to her as to take pride in it.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

“To many people, free will is a license to rebel not against what is unjust or hard in life but against what is best for them and true.”

Dean Koontz book The Darkest Evening of the Year

Source: The Darkest Evening of the Year

Life , People

“We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.”

Richard Dawkins book The Selfish Gene

Source: The Selfish Gene

Selfishness

“Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.”

Edmund Burke book Reflections on the Revolution in France

Volume iii, p. 334
Source: Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)

“It seems that the rebels found the chaos of transition more difficult to accept than the tyranny they had known before. They joyfully welcomed back authority-even oppressive authority-for it was less painful for them than uncertainty.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Well of Ascension

Pain

“The thing about fate, Magnus: even if we can't change the big picture, our choices can alter the details. That's how we rebel against destiny, how we make our mark. What will you choose to do?”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Fate , Change

“even if we can’t change the big picture, our choices can alter the details. That’s how we rebel against destiny”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Change

“The young always have the same problem — how to rebel and conform at the same time. They have now solved this problem by defying their elders and copying each other.”

Quentin Crisp book The Naked Civil Servant

Source: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Ch. 19

Problem , Time

“Ireland is a land of poets and legends, of dreamers and rebels. All of these have music woven through and around them. Tunes for dancing or for weeping, for battle or for love.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Source: Tears of the Moon

Love , Music , Dance

“the difference between a rebel and a patriot depends upon who is in power at the moment.”

Sidney Sheldon book The Sands of Time

Source: The Sands of Time

Dependency

“There's a rebel lying deep in my soul. Anytime anybody tells me the trend is such and such, I go the opposite direction. I hate the idea of trends. I hate imitation; I have a reverence for individuality.”

Clint Eastwood (1930) actor and director from the United States

Source: Wild Open Spaces: Why We Love Westerns

Hate , Soul , Lying , Idea

“When people attempt to rebel against the iron logic of Nature, they come into conflict with the very same principles to which they owe their existence as human beings. Their actions against Nature must lead to their own downfall.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

People , Nature

“We need more people speaking out. This country is not overrun with rebels & free thinkers. It's overrun with sheep & conformists.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

People , Country

“He drew a circle that shut me out —
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.”

Edwin Markham (1852–1940) American poet

"Outwitted".
The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems (1913)

Love

“What we have not chosen we cannot consider either our merit or our failure… To rebel against being born a woman seemed as foolish to her as to take pride in it.”

Milan Kundera book The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Source: The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Failure

“You just rebel against everything. How are you going to survive?

I don't know. I'm already tired.”

Charles Bukowski book Ham on Rye

Source: Ham on Rye

“Tyrants conduct monologues above a million solitudes. —ALBERT CAMUS, THE REBEL”

Clive James book Cultural Amnesia

Cultural Amnesia: Necessary Memories from History and the Arts

Solitude

“True rebels after all, are as rare as true lovers, and in both cases, to mistake a fever for passion can destroy one's life”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Life , Lovers , Passion

“We attacked a foreign people and treated them like rebels. As you know, it's all right to treat barbarians barbarically. It's the desire to be barbaric that makes governments call their enemies barbarians.”

Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German poet, playwright, theatre director

People

“On! ye patriots to the battle. Hear Fort Moultrie's canon rattle. Then away, then away, then away to the fight! Go meet those Southern Traitors with iron will and should your courage falter boys, remember Bunker Hill. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! The stars and stripes forever! Hurrah! Hurrah! Our Union shall not sever! As our fathers crushed oppression deal with those who breathe Secession. Then away, then away, then away to the fight. Though Beauregard and Wigfall. Their swords may whet. Just tell them Major Anderson. Has not surrendered yet. Hurrah! Hurrah! Our Union shall not sever! Is Virginia, too, seceeding? Washington's remains unheeding? Then away, then away, then away to the fight. Unfold our country's banner. In triumph there and let the rebels desecrate that banner if they dare. Hurrah! Hurrah! Our Union shall not sever! Volunteers, be up and doing. Still the good old path pursuing. Then away, then away, then away to the fight. Your sires, who fought before you have led the way. Then follow in their footsteps and be as brave as they. Hurrah! Hurrah! Our Union shall not sever! On! ye patriots to the battle. Hear Fort Moultrie's cannon rattle then away, then away, then away to the fight. The star that lights our Union shall never set! Though fierce may be the conflict we'll gain the victory yet. Hurrah! Hurrah! Our Union shall not sever!”

Fanny J. Crosby (1820–1915) American poet, lyricist and composer

Dixie For The Union http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/dixie/lyrics.html#union.
1860s

Way , Star , Boy , Courage

“We follow ideas and not men, and rebel against this habit of embodying a principle in a man.”

Errico Malatesta (1853–1932) Italian anarchist

Speech to International Anarchist Congress (1907)

Men , Idea

“How could I as an individual, Ernesto Guevara, accept the degree of Doctor Honoris Causa conferred by the School of Education, since the only education I have imparted has been that of guerrilla camps, harsh words, and fierce example? And I believe such things certainly cannot be transformed into a cap and gown. That is why I continue to wear my Rebel Army uniform.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Speech at the University of Las Villas (1959)

Education , School

“You rebel against the tribal and look for the individual, for your own voice as against the stereotypical voice of the tribe or the tribe's stereotype of itself. You have to establish yourself against your predecessor, and doing so can well involve what they like to call self-hatred. I happen to think that—all those protestations notwithstanding—your self hatred was real and a positive force in its very destructiveness. Since to build something new often requires that something else be destroyed, self-hatred is valuable for a young person. What should he or she have instead—self-approval, self-satisfaction, self-praise? It's not so bad to hate the norms that keep a society from moving on, especially when the norms are dictated by fear as much as by anything else and especially when that fear is of the enemy forces of the overwhelming majority. But you seem now to be so strongly motivated by a need for reconciliation with the tribe that you aren't even willing to acknowledge how disapproving of its platitudinous demands you were back then, however ineluctably Jewish you may also have felt. The prodigal son who once upset the tribal balance—and perhaps even invigorated the tribe's health—may well, in his old age, have a sentimental urge to go back home, but isn't this a bit premature in you, aren't you really too young to have it so fully developed?”

Philip Roth book The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography

Nathan Zuckerman to Philip Roth
The Facts: A Novelist's Autobiography (1988)

Hate , Health , Age , Fear

“We will not be picking up axes and breaking into people's homes. But we will not remain silent either. Moderation in the face of evil is not what our age needs. As Ronald Reagan declared, "The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted." We must uncap our pens; we must speak words of truth. We are facing a determined enemy who is striving through all means to destroy the West and snuff out our traditions of free thought, free speech, and freedom of religion. Make no mistake: if we fail, we will be enslaved. We must not let the violent fanatics dictate what we draw, what we say, and what we read. We must rebel against their suffocating rules and thuggish demands at every turn. You can help the fight just by reading this book, which explains the many ways in which Islam has marked for death not just me, but all of Western civilization. We must, in the words of Revolutionary War veteran General John Stark, "Live free or die."”

Geert Wilders (1963) Dutch politician

Source: 2010s, Marked for Death (2012), Ch. 1, p. 6

Death , War , People , Truth

“It's not that I'm rebelling. It's that I'm just trying to find another way.”

Edie Sedgwick (1943–1971) Socialite, actress, model

Edie : Girl On Fire (2006)

Way

“The last public levy was 297 lbs. (of tobacco) per poll, and the great levy the year before has given occasion for malignant spirits to mutter, and may cause some to mutiny, "for the common people will never be brought to understand the just reason of a public charge, or will they ever believe that the expense is for their own preservation." Since General Davis and Pate were hanged the rabble have been much appalled. Now enjoy peace among themselves, though never body was more replete with malignancy and frenzy than our people were about August last, and they wanted but a monstrous head to their monstrous body. The greatest revolution has occurred in Virginia affairs, for as their rebellion was grounded upon madness and folly, so the wheel has turned again as wonderfully and swiftly in the submission of all the chief rebels…”

Thomas Notley (1634–1679) American politician

Letter https://books.google.com/books?id=hFE4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA8 to Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore (22 January 1677).

People , Peace , Understanding , Madness

“…in our society… this has now become a propagandist system in which emphasis is put on the future… the ideology against which the young people of the 1950's and 1960's rebelled. Future preference: plan; study hard; save.”

Carroll Quigley (1910–1977) American historian

Oscar Iden Lecture Series, Lecture 3: "The State of Individuals" (1976)

People , Study , Future

“Rebel Rebel, you've torn your dress.
Rebel Rebel, your face is a mess.
Rebel Rebel, how could they know?
Hot tramp, I love you so!”

David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger

Rebel Rebel
Song lyrics, Diamond Dogs (1974)

Love

“They say the rebels in Iraq still fight for Saddam but that's bullshit. I'll tell you why it's totally wrong. Because if another country invaded the hood tonight it would be warfare through Harlem and Washington Heights. I wouldn't be fighting for Bush or white America's dream. I'd be fighting for my people's survival and self esteem.”

Immortal Technique (1978) American rapper and activist

Bin Laden (2005)
The Martyr, 2011, Singles

People , Dreams , Fight , Country

“But man is the unnatural animal, the rebel child of Nature, and more and more does he turn himself against the harsh and fitful hand that reared him.”

H. G. Wells book A Modern Utopia

Source: A Modern Utopia (1905), Ch. 5, sect. 2

Nature , Animals

“Then should some man of worth appear
Whose stainless virtue all revere,
They hush, they list: his clear voice rules
Their rebel wills, their anger cools.”

John Conington (1825–1869) British classical scholar

Source: Translations, The Aeneid of Virgil (1866), Book I, p. 10

Appearance , Anger

“You rebel not only for what you can achieve, but for who you become. In the end, those who rebel require faith — not a formal or necessarily Christian, Jewish or Muslim orthodoxy, but a faith that the good draws to it the good. That we are called to carry out the good insofar as we can determine what the good is.”

Chris Hedges (1956) American journalist

as interviewed by Elias Isquith, salon.com http://www.salon.com/2015/06/04/we_are_in_a_revolutionary_moment_chris_hedges_explains_why_an_uprising_is_coming_%E2%80%94_and_soon/

Faith , Drawing

“That way of life against which my generation rebelled had given us grim courage, fortitude, self-discipline, a sense of individual responsibility, and a capacity for relentless hard work.”

Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968) American journalist

Written in 1935, as quoted in The Ghost in the Little House, ch. 2, by William V. Holtz (1993).

Life , Way , Courage , Sense

“We did it with their government’s foreknowledge and permission, of course—and there were no civilian casualties, equally of course. Once they’re dead they’re rebels.”

Joe Haldeman book Forever Peace

Source: Forever Peace (1997), p. 27

Dead

“I felt like I was just not being myself. I felt like I was hiding. I was hiding from me. I was hiding from sparkle and magic and fun and fearlessness and music and dance and creative magic… I just knew I had feelings. I knew I had thoughts. I knew I had things I wanted to say. Listen, I'm rebellious. Okay? I always have been. And Erika Jayne is a little bit of a rebel too.”

Erika Jayne (1969) American singer, actress and television personality

Erika Jayne interview to Nightline http://www.bravotv.com/the-daily-dish/erika-girardi-on-creation-of-erika-jayne (2017)

Music , Feeling , Dance

“Greta Van Susteren: What would you do about Libya?
Gingrich: Exercise a no-fly zone this evening, communicate to the Libyan military that Gaddafi was gone and that the sooner they switch sides, the more likely they were to survive, provided help to the rebels to replace him. I mean, the idea that we're confused about a man who has been an anti-American dictator since 1969 just tells you how inept this administration is. They were very quick to jump on Mubarak, who was their ally for 30 years, and they were confused about getting rid of Gaddafi. This is a moment to get rid of him. Do it. Get it over with.”

Newt Gingrich (1943) Professor, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

On the Record
Fox News
2011-03-07
2010s

Exercises , Communication , Idea , Help

“I have no interest in Kerouac whatsoever. I've done my stint for him. As far as I'm concerned, Kerouac is what Madison Avenue wants a rebel to be. That isn't my kind of rebel.”

Kenneth Rexroth (1905–1982) American poet, writer, anarchist, academic and conscientious objector

Rothenberg and Antin interview (1958)

“The order was made and sent out, without any reflection, and without thinking of the Jews as a sect or race to themselves, but simply as persons who had successfully, I say successfully instead of persistently because I know there were a plenty within my lines who envied them their success, violated an order, which violation innured greatly to help the rebels.”

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) 18th President of the United States

1860s, Letter to Isaac N. Morris (1868)

Thinking , Success , Help , Envy

“I’ll have to throw it at him, Rebel thought. Swing it up, catch him under the jaw, break a few teeth. Then grab the knife and hold him for the security people. That was a good plan. It ranked right up there with suddenly learning how to teleport.”

Michael Swanwick book Vacuum Flowers

Source: Vacuum Flowers (1987), Chapter 5, “People's Sheraton” (pp. 74-75)

People , Learning

“As long as the world shall last, there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

As quoted in American Dream, a Search for Justice (2003) by Sherman D. Manning, p. 125

World

“Myspace is a great way to keep in touch with friends whom you don't care enough about to actually have a conversation with. Why bother calling to say 'How are you?' when you can just surf their page and post an mpeg of a guy farting on his cat?
[Myspace is] this website where young people can post pictures and info about themselves for anyone to see. When I first heard about it, I thought to myself, 'Finally a Yellow Pages for sex offenders. Why didn't I think of that?'
The most popular (American Idol) contestants have been: white people that sound black, young people that sound old, and straight guys that sound gay.
The final five are exactly like The Breakfast Club: There's the rebel(Chris Daughtry), the princess (Katharine McPhee), the nerd (Elliot Yamin), the weirdo (Paris Bennett)… and of course, the principal (Taylor Hicks). What? He's old!
(Ryan Phillippe & Reese Witherspoon) Broke up, (Kid Rock & Pamela Anderson) broke up, (Vince Vaughn & Jennifer Aniston) broke up, (Kate Moss & Pete Doherty) coked up. They said it wouldn't last; not the marriage, the stash. 007,.08, 1.2, 215. Came out, came out, (Tom Brady and Bridget Moynihan) came in, (Brady and Gisele Bündchen) came in. Hates Jews, went to rehab, loves Jews; hates gays, went to rehab, now loves gays; hates blacks, didn't go to rehab, still hates blacks. 'Father Knows Best', (with Britney Spears) 'Mad About You,' (Spears without panties) 'Leave It to Beaver.' New father, new father, new father? R. I. P., D. U. I., P. O. W. 'You're a hypocrite,' 'you're fat,' 'you're rude,' 'you're ugly,' whoa, whoa, whoa, guys. Stop fighting, you're both right. Booze, pot, Vicodin, crack, booze, pot, Vicodin, and crack.”

David Spade (1964) American stand-up comedian

The Showbiz Show with David Spade

Love , Hate , Marriage , People

“New Leftists are not buying the collectivist doctrine of the established (Communist) organizations. They are quite simply libertarians, rebelling against unreasonable power and authority, whether it comes via established government or totalitarian (leftist) organizations.”

Phillip Abbott Luce (1935–1998)

Quoted in “Not All Protesters Part of Conspiracy,” Jerry R. Wilson, The Oklahoma Journal, August 7, 1972, speech by Phillip Abbott Luce in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“The Sioux had been forced to submit to a series of land grabs and to indignities that are almost unbelievable when read about today. …they were being systematically starved into submission—by the White Bureaucracy—on the little that was left of their reservation in South Dakota. …From Rosebud, the Ghost Dance spread like prairie fire to the Pine Ridge Sioux and finally to Sitting Bull's people at Standing Rock. The Sioux rebelled; the result was the death of Sitting Bull and the massacre of the Indians (despite their ghost shirts) at Wounded Knee in 1890.”

Peter Farb (1929–1980) American academic and writer

Man's Rise to Civilization (1968)

Death , People , Reading , Dance

“Millard Parlette was near exhaustion. … Sometimes it seemed to him, that he was at the end of his life, that he'd waited just long enough to meet this — the crisis he'd foreseen a hundred years ago. … Known rebels moved freely through the Hospital, and no one could touch them. Their attitude toward the police was rude and contemptuous. Rumor had it that Millard Parlette was drafting new laws to further restrict police power. It didn't help that the rumors were true.”

Larry Niven (1938) American writer

Source: A Gift From Earth (1968), Ch. 14 : Balance Of Power

Life , Law , Waiting , Help

“V. We complain that the Union cause has suffered, and is now suffering immensely, from mistaken deference to Rebel Slavery. Had you, Sir, in your Inaugural Address, unmistakably given notice that, in case the Rebellion already commenced were persisted in, and your efforts to preserve the Union and enforce the laws should be resisted by armed force, you would recognize no loyal person as rightfully held in Slavery by a traitor, we believe the Rebellion would therein have received a staggering if not fatal blow. At that moment, according to the returns of the most recent elections, the Unionists were a large majority of the voters of the Slave States. But they were composed in good part of the aged, the feeble, the wealthy, the timid--the young, the reckless, the aspiring, the adventurous, had already been largely lured by the gamblers and negro-traders, the politicians by trade and the conspirators by instinct, into the toils of Treason. Had you then proclaimed that Rebellion would strike the shackles from the slaves of every traitor, the wealthy and the cautious would have been supplied with a powerful inducement to remain loyal. As it was, every coward in the South soon became a traitor from fear; for Loyalty was perilous, while Treason seemed comparatively safe. Hence the boasted unanimity of the South--a unanimity based on Rebel terrorism and the fact that immunity and safety were found on that side, danger and probable death on ours. The Rebels from the first have been eager to confiscate, imprison, scourge and kill: we have fought wolves with the devices of sheep. The result is just what might have been expected. Tens of thousands are fighting in the Rebel ranks to-day whose, original bias and natural leanings would have led them into ours.”

Horace Greeley (1811–1872) American politician and publisher

1860s, The Prayer of the Twenty Millions (1862)

Death , Age , Fear , Law

“Inspired by the teachings of Smohalla, Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé in Idaho rebelled in 1877. Before he was trapped only thirty miles short of refuge in Canada, he had consistently outwitted and outfought a superior United States Army… although he forbade his warriors to scalp or to torture, the Whites massacred his women and children.”

Peter Farb (1929–1980) American academic and writer

Man's Rise to Civilization (1968)

Women , Children

“All the above names are Hindu, and ordinarily these …are Hindus by race, who had been carried off in infancy from various villages or the houses of different rebel Hindu princes. In spite of their Hindu names, they are however, Mahomedans.”

Niccolao Manucci (1638–1717) Italian writer and historian

Manucci elaborating about the women and eunuchs in the Mughal harems. Manucci, II, 336-38. Quoted from Lal, K. S. (1994). Muslim slave system in medieval India. New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan. Chapter 12
Storia do Mogor

Housing

“If I weren't an actress playing a socialite, I'd have lavender hair, wear crappy vintage clothes and have tattoos. I'd be some kind of crazy lawless rebel - an alternative underground riot girl.”

Megan Mullally (1958) American actress

Attributed

Girl , Tattoo , Clothes

“People back home call me a heckler, a troublemaker, an irritant, a rebel, an activist, the voice of the people. But that wasn't always me. Growing up, I had a nickname. They used to call me Softy, meaning the soft, harmless boy. Like every other human being, I avoided trouble. In my childhood, they taught me silence. Don't argue, do as you're told. In Sunday school, they taught me don't confront, don't argue, even if you're right, turn the other cheek. This was reinforced by the political climate of the time. Kenya is a country where you are guilty until proven rich. Kenya's poor are five times more likely to be shot dead by the police who are meant to protect them than by criminals. This was reinforced by the political climate of the day.”

Boniface Mwangi (1983) Kenyan photojournalist

The day I stood up alone

People , School , Home , Boy

“Cleverly assorted scraps of spurious science are inculcated upon the children to prove necessity of law; obedience to the law is made a religion; moral goodness and the law of the masters are fused into one and the same divinity. The historical hero of the schoolroom is the man who obeys the law, and defends it against rebels.”

Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) Russian zoologist, evolutionary theorist, philosopher, scientist, revolutionary, economist, activist, geogr…

Source: Law and Authority (1886), I

Children , Religion , Law , Science

“True to the meaning of the rebel as one who renounces authority, he seeks primarily not the substitution of one political system for another. He may favor such a political change, but it is not his chief goal. He rebels for the sake of a vision of life and society which he is convinced is critically important for himself and his fellows. … the rebel fights not only for the relief of his fellow men but also for his personal integrity. For him these are but two sides of the same coin.”

Rollo May (1909–1994) US psychiatrist

Source: Power and Innocence (1972), Ch. 11 : The Humanity of the Rebel

Life , Men , Change , Fight

“Every unregenerate rebel lately in arms against his government calls himself a Democrat. Every bounty jumper, every deserter, every sneak who ran away from the draft calls himself a Democrat.”

Oliver P. Morton (1823–1877) American politician

As contained in Treason Exposed: Record of the Disloyal Democracy https://books.google.com/books?id=1-d9AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Treason+Exposed:+Record+of+the+Disloyal+Democracy%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwisi5WmtMrLAhUCOz4KHUcHCEcQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22Treason%20Exposed%3A%20Record%20of%20the%20Disloyal%20Democracy%22&f=false (1866), Republican Party (Ind.) State Central Committee, p. 2
Arraignment of the Democratic Party (June 1866)