QuoteProject
The existing legal constitution is nothing but the product of a revolution. Revolution is the act of political creation in the history of classes, while constitutional legislation is the expression of the continual political vegetation of a society.
Rosa Luxemburg
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The constitution arises from revolutionary change, reflecting society's political evolution.

Rosa Luxemburg emphasizes that the constitution is a result of revolutionary transformations within a society, representing not just the laws of governance but the ongoing political growth and development of that society. She highlights the dynamic relationship between revolutionary action and constitutional legislation, suggesting that the constitution is influenced by the historical struggles and classes that shape its existence.

Themes

RevolutionConstitutionPolitical ChangeSocietyLawsHistory

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the importance of social movements, one could reference this quote to illustrate the link between revolution and legal frameworks.

More from Rosa Luxemburg

Our scribblings are usually not lyrics but whirrings, without colour or resonance, like the tone of an engine-wheel. I believe that the cause lies in the fact that when people write, they forget for the most part to dig deeply into themselves and to feel the whole import and truth of what they are writing.
Rosa LuxemburgRead
The working classes in every country only learn to fight in the course of their struggles...Social democracy...is only the advance guard of the proletariat, a small piece of the total working masses; blood from their blood, and flesh from their flesh. Social democracy seeks and finds the ways, and particular slogans, of the workers' struggle only in the course of the development of this struggle, and gains directions for the way forward through this struggle alone.
Rosa LuxemburgRead
Freedom for supporters of the government only, for members of one party only no matter how big its membership may be is no freedom at all. Freedom is always freedom for the man who thinks differently.
Rosa LuxemburgRead
Social democracy seeks and finds the ways, and particular slogans, of the workers' struggle only in the course of the development of this struggle, and gains directions for the way forward through this struggle alone.
Rosa LuxemburgRead
Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently.
Rosa LuxemburgRead
Work for legal reform takes place only within the framework of the social form created by the last revolution.
Rosa LuxemburgRead

Similar quotes

All things are God's already; we can give him no right, by consecrating any, that he had not before, only we set it apart to his service - just as a gardener brings his master a basket of apricots, and presents them; his lord thanks him, and perhaps gives him something for his pains, and yet the apricots were as much his lord's before as now.
John SeldenRead
It doth not hurt", whispered a faint voice, "She will take you life and all you are and all you care'st for, and she will leave you with nothing but mist and fog. She'll take your joy. And one day you'll wake and your heart and soul will have gone. A husk you'll be, a wisp you'll be, and a thing no more than a dream on waking, or a memory of something forgotten.
Neil GaimanRead
The easiest rationalization for the refusal to seek the truth is the denial that truth exists.
Sidney HookRead
As individuals express their life, so they are. What they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce. The nature of individuals thus depends on the material conditions determining their production.
Karl MarxRead
Through repentance the filth of our foul actions is washed away. After this, we participate in the Holy Spirit, not automatically, but according to the faith, humility and inner disposition of the repentance in which our soul is engaged. For this reason it is good to repent each day as the act of repentance is unending.
Symeon The New TheologianRead
In so far as the mind sees things in their eternal aspect, it participates in eternity.
Baruch SpinozaRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.