The slogans that appeared as graffiti scrawled overnight on the walls in Paris in May 1968 expressed the spirit of the New Left: “Power to the imagination”; “Be realistic, demand the impossible”; “Beneath the paving stones, the beach.” The critique of the dehumanization of modern society captured in these slogans reflects both the imagination and the idealistic vagueness of counterculture demands.

Boredom is counterrevolutionary.

In a society that has abolished every kind of adventure the only adventure that remains is to abolish the society.

The revolution is incredible because it’s really happening.

Live in the moment.

Down with the state.

Don’t liberate me — I’ll take care of that.

We want structures that serve people, not people serving structures.

Politics is in the streets.

A proletarian is someone who has no power over his life and knows it.

Workers of all countries, enjoy!

We refuse to be highrised, diplomaed, licensed, inventoried, registered, indoctrinated, suburbanized, sermonized, beaten, telemanipulated, gassed, booked.

Poetry is in the streets.

I’m a Groucho Marxist.

I take my desires for reality because I believe in the reality of my desires.

Those who lack imagination cannot imagine what is lacking.

Forget everything you’ve been taught. Start by dreaming.

Professors, you make us grow old.

We don’t want to be the watchdogs or servants of capitalism.

Exams = servility, social promotion, hierarchical society.

When examined, answer with questions.

If God existed it would be necessary to abolish him.

Revolutionary women are more beautiful.

Make love, not war.

Down with consumer society.

You can’t buy happiness. Steal it.

Only the truth is revolutionary.

No freedom for the enemies of freedom.

Source: Michael H. Hunt, The World Transformed, 1945 to the Present: A Documentary Reader (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004), pp. 172–174.

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