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)