The note of the perfect personality is not rebellion, but peace.
—Oscar Wilde
Despair, surely the least aggressive of sins, is dangerous to the totalitarian temperament because it is a state of intense inwardness, thus independence. The despairing soul is a rebel.
—Joyce Carol Oates
High heels were invented by a woman who had been kissed on the forehead.
—Christopher Morley
Freedom lies beyond conformity or rebellion.
—Sam Keen
After the Easter Rebellion of 1916 in Ireland, Eamon De Valera was sentenced to penal servitude. En route to his prison, he took out his pipe and was about to light it when he stopped suddenly and said, "I will not let them deprive me of this pleasure in jail!" He immediately threw away the pipe and from that day never smoked again.
—Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes
What causes adolescents to rebel is not the assertion of authority but the arbitrary use of power, with little explanation of the rules and no involvement [of the adolescent] in the decision making.
—Laurence Steinberg and Ann Levine
Rebellion without truth is like spring in a bleak, arid desert.
—Kahlil Gibran
Disobedience, in the eyes of anyone who has read history, is man's original virtue. It is through disobedience and rebellion that progress has been made.
—Oscar Wilde