"a revolution is not a dinner party" meaning in English

See a revolution is not a dinner party in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: Calque of Chinese 革命不是請客吃飯 /革命不是请客吃饭 (gémìng bùshì qǐngkè chīfàn, literally “revolution is not having guests to eat a meal”). An aphoristic political statement by Mao Zedong, defending violence as a means of imposing a different societal order; for more, see Wikipedia at revolution is not a dinner party. Etymology templates: {{calque|en|zh|革命不是請客吃飯|lit=revolution is not having guests to eat a meal|tr=gémìng bùshì qǐngkè chīfàn}} Calque of Chinese 革命不是請客吃飯 /革命不是请客吃饭 (gémìng bùshì qǐngkè chīfàn, literally “revolution is not having guests to eat a meal”) Head templates: {{en-head|proverb|head=~dinner party}} a revolution is not a dinner party
  1. In order to achieve something, courtesy, long-held norms, and other such formalities must be dropped.
    Sense id: en-a_revolution_is_not_a_dinner_party-en-proverb-mfuxYOdM Categories (other): English aphorisms, English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
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        "3": "革命不是請客吃飯",
        "lit": "revolution is not having guests to eat a meal",
        "tr": "gémìng bùshì qǐngkè chīfàn"
      },
      "expansion": "Calque of Chinese 革命不是請客吃飯 /革命不是请客吃饭 (gémìng bùshì qǐngkè chīfàn, literally “revolution is not having guests to eat a meal”)",
      "name": "calque"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Calque of Chinese 革命不是請客吃飯 /革命不是请客吃饭 (gémìng bùshì qǐngkè chīfàn, literally “revolution is not having guests to eat a meal”). An aphoristic political statement by Mao Zedong, defending violence as a means of imposing a different societal order; for more, see Wikipedia at revolution is not a dinner party.",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
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          "kind": "other",
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      "glosses": [
        "In order to achieve something, courtesy, long-held norms, and other such formalities must be dropped."
      ],
      "id": "en-a_revolution_is_not_a_dinner_party-en-proverb-mfuxYOdM",
      "links": [
        [
          "In order to",
          "in order to"
        ],
        [
          "achieve",
          "achieve"
        ],
        [
          "courtesy",
          "courtesy"
        ],
        [
          "long-held",
          "long-held"
        ],
        [
          "norms",
          "norms"
        ],
        [
          "formalities",
          "formality"
        ],
        [
          "dropped",
          "dropped"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "a revolution is not a dinner party"
}
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        "1": "en",
        "2": "zh",
        "3": "革命不是請客吃飯",
        "lit": "revolution is not having guests to eat a meal",
        "tr": "gémìng bùshì qǐngkè chīfàn"
      },
      "expansion": "Calque of Chinese 革命不是請客吃飯 /革命不是请客吃饭 (gémìng bùshì qǐngkè chīfàn, literally “revolution is not having guests to eat a meal”)",
      "name": "calque"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Calque of Chinese 革命不是請客吃飯 /革命不是请客吃饭 (gémìng bùshì qǐngkè chīfàn, literally “revolution is not having guests to eat a meal”). An aphoristic political statement by Mao Zedong, defending violence as a means of imposing a different societal order; for more, see Wikipedia at revolution is not a dinner party.",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
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      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In order to achieve something, courtesy, long-held norms, and other such formalities must be dropped."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "In order to",
          "in order to"
        ],
        [
          "achieve",
          "achieve"
        ],
        [
          "courtesy",
          "courtesy"
        ],
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          "long-held",
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  "word": "a revolution is not a dinner party"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-20 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (d6fca27 and 65e1673). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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