Political revolutions … do not often accomplish anything of genuine value; their one undoubted effect is simply to throw out one gang of thieves and put in another. After a revolution, of course, the successful revolutionists always try to convince doubters that they have achieved great things, and usually they hang any man who denies it.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]

“Matters of State: Le Contrat Social,” Prejudices: Third Series (1922)