Eric Hoffer -

...the leader of a mass movement has an overwhelming contempt for the present -- for all its stubborn facts and perplexities, even those of geography and the weather. He relies on miracles. His hatred of the present (his nihilism) comes to the fore when the situation becomes desperate. He destroys his country and his people rather than surrender.

Frederick Douglass -

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to, and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.