Revolutionaries do not make revolutions. The revolutionaries are those who know when power is lying in the street and then they can pick it up.

Arendt’s remark distinguishes between deliberate revolutionary “making” and the contingent breakdowns in authority that create openings for radical change. In her view, revolutions are less the product of a small cadre’s will than of moments when established power loses its grip—through crisis, delegitimation, or institutional collapse. “Revolutionaries” are then defined not by ideological fervor alone but by political judgment: the capacity to recognize when power has become available and to organize quickly enough to seize and stabilize it. The line reflects Arendt’s broader emphasis on power as something that arises from collective action and consent, and on the fragility of regimes when that consent evaporates.