Maximilien Robespierre Quotes

26 quotes in 331 categories

• One can...never create [freedom] by an invading force.
• You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
• The most extravagant idea that can be born in the head of a political thinker is to believe that it suffices for people to enter,…
• The revolution is the war of liberty against its enemies. The constitution is the rule of liberty against its enemies. The constitution is the rule…
• Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible. It is then an emanation of virtue.
• Again, it may be said, that to love justice and equality the people need no great effort of virtue; it is sufficient that they love…
• The general will rules in society as the private will governs each separate individual.
• Terror is nothing else than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible.
• Food that is necessary for man’s existence is as sacred as life itself. Everything that is indispensable for its preservation is the common property of…
• By sealing our work with our blood, we may see at least the bright dawn of universal happiness.
• Softness to traitors will destroy us all.
• Any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil.
• Omelets are not made without breaking eggs.
• Is it to be thought unreasonable that the people, in atonement for wrongs of a century, demand the vengeance of a single day?
• Terror is nothing more than justice, prompt, secure and inflexible.
• It is with regret that I pronounce the fatal truth: Louis ought to perish rather than a hundred thousand virtuous citizens; Louis must die that…
• The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
• Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue; it is less a distinct principle than a natural consequence…
• Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.
• To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.

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