Leonard Read, from his 1961 speech, “The Essence of Americanism”:
“I do not think of the real American revolution as the armed conflict we had with King George III. That was a reasonably minor fracas as such fracases go! The real American revolution was a novel concept or idea which broke with the whole political history of the world.”
John Adams, from an 1815 letter to Thomas Jefferson:
“As to the history of the Revolution, my Ideas may be peculiar, perhaps Singular. What do We mean by the Revolution? The War? That was no part of the Revolution. It was only an Effect and Consequence of it. The Revolution was in the Minds of the People, and this was effected, from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen Years before a drop of blood was drawn at Lexington. The Records of thirteen Legislatures, the Pamphlets, Newspapers in all the Colonies ought be consulted, during that Period, to ascertain the Steps by which the public opinion was enlightened and informed concerning the Authority of Parliament over the Colonies.”
Diane Ackerman, from her 1987 article in Parade on Samuel Adams, "The Man Who Made a Revolution":
"Early on, he realized that revolutions don't require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brushfires in people's minds."
Thomas Paine, from his 1797 pamphlet Agrarian Justice:
“An army of principles will penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot. Neither the Channel nor the Rhine will arrest its progress. It will march on the horizon of the world and it will conquer.”
Victor Hugo, from his 1877 novel The History of a Crime:
“One withstands the invasion of armies; one does not withstand the invasion of ideas.”
Gustave Aimard, from his 1861 novel Les Francs-Tireurs:
“…there is something more powerful than the brute force of bayonets: it is the idea whose time has come and hour struck…”
Ron Paul, from his 2008 speech at “The Rally for the Republic”:
“An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any government.”