Revolution
Overview
 
A revolution is a fundamental change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...

 in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.
Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...

 described two types of political revolution:
  1. Complete change from one constitution to another
  2. Modification of an existing constitution.

Revolutions have occurred through human history and vary widely in terms of methods, duration, and motivating ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...

.
Quotations

Revolution is not a dinner party, nor an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly, and modestly. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one Class struggle|class overthrows another.

Mao Zedong. "Che Guevara: Revolutionary & Icon", by Trisha Ziff, Abrams Image, 2006, pg 66

A revolution is an idea which has found its bayonets.

Napoleon Bonaparte. Journal of International Affairs, By Columbia University. School of International Affairs, 1976, pg 94

The revolution is not an apple that falls when it is ripe. You have to make it drop.

Che Guevara. "Che Guevara: Revolutionary & Icon", by Trisha Ziff, Abrams Image, 2006, pg 69

REVOLUTIONARY: An oppressed person waiting for the opportunity to become an oppressor.

Rick Bayan|Rick Bayan, The Cynic's Dictionary

And I realized that the only purpose to revolution is to be able to love who you want, how you want, when you want and where you want...

Dan Bern, "True Revolutionaries", Smartie Mine|Smartie Mine (1999)

Revolution: Political movement which gets many people´s hopes up, let´s even more people down, makes almost everybody uncomfortable, and a few, extraordinarily rich. It is widely held in high regard.

Adolfo Bioy Casares, Descanso de caminantes, 2001.

The first duty of society is to give each of its members the possibility of fulfilling his destiny. When it becomes incapable of performing this duty it must be transformed.

Alexis Carrel, Reflections on Life

Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.

John Dickinson (delegate)|John Dickinson, The Liberty Song|The Liberty Song

Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind; and when the same thought occurs to another man, it is the key to that era.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series, 1841

The succeessful revolutionary is a statesman, the unsuccessful one a criminal.

Erich Fromm Escape from Freedom, 1941

 
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