A government or a party gets the people it deserves and sooner or later a people gets the government it deserves.
Frantz FanonRead
And it is clear that in the colonial countries the peasants alone are revolutionary, for they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. The starving peasant, outside the class system is the first among the exploited to discover that only violence pays. For him there is no compromise, no possible coming to terms; colonization and decolonization a simply a question of relative strength.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The oppressed peasants in colonial countries have the most to gain from upheaval, as they possess little and have suffered greatly.
Frantz Fanon highlights the revolutionary potential of the peasantry in colonial societies, arguing that their dire circumstances—having nothing to lose and everything to gain—lead them to embrace violent means to achieve liberation. For these individuals, there is no room for compromise; they perceive decolonization solely as a struggle determined by the balance of power, which pushes them toward radical action.
Themes
RevolutionColonialismPeasantsViolenceDecolonization
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech discussing the impact of colonialism on modern political movements.
More from Frantz Fanon
All quotes →When we revolt it’s not for a particular culture. We revolt simply because, for many reasons, we can no longer breathe.
Frantz FanonRead
Certain things need to be said if one is to avoid falsifying the problem.
Frantz FanonRead
I want the world to recognize with me the open door of every consciousness
Frantz FanonRead
The gaze that the colonized subject casts at the colonist's sector is a look of lust, a look of envy. Dreams of possession. Every type of possession; of sitting at the colonist's table and sleeping in his bed, preferably with his wife. The colonized man is an envious man.
Frantz FanonRead
Hate demands existence, and he who hates has to show his hate in appropriate actions and behaviors; in a sense, he has to become hate. That is why the Americans have substituted discrimination for lynching.
Frantz FanonRead
Similar quotes
Small change, small wonders - these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life.
Barbara KingsolverRead
A non-violent revolution is not a program of seizure of power. It is a program of transformation of relationships, ending in a peaceful transfer of power.
Mahatma GandhiRead
If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself, and make a change.
Michael JacksonRead
You cannot easily fit women into a structure that is already coded as male; you have to change the structure.
Mary BeardRead
I think the fossil fuel industry is genuinely freaked out by the combination of the price collapse, the divestment movement, and that fact that renewable energy is getting so cheap so fast.
Naomi KleinRead
By changing the way you do routine things you allow a new man to grow inside you.
Paulo CoelhoRead