““The French Revolution gave history its first instance of modern leftist illiberalism -- an embrace of tyranny in the name of the people. All the symptoms were there: the use of coercion against the individual in the name of the public good; a fierce close-mindedness and the suppression of dissent; the appeal to romanticized, utopian myths to justify ruthless acts in the name of "the people"; and a complete rejection of the moderate Enlightenment's respect for narrowly defined (largely negatively defined) individual rights and the rule of law. Over 40,000 people were executed in less than a year during the Terror, some 17,000 by the guillotine. Tyrants had existed for millennia before the French Revolution, but what made the new dictators in Paris different, and historically dangerous, was that they committed their illiberal acts in the name of liberalism itself.””
![“[On the eve of the French Revolution:] It is impossible to imagine a more disorderly Assembly. They neither reason, examine, nor discuss. They clap those whom they approve and hiss those whom they disapprove. . . . Everything almost is elective, and consequently no one obeys. It is an anarchy…” quote by Gouverneur Morris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/77a/gouverneur-morris-26042_freedom_on-the-eve-of-the-french-revolution-it-i_1720772.jpg)
![“[W]hat is historically new is the alliance with the cultural left. Back in the 1960s, many economically minded New Deal liberals and even socialists wanted nothing to do with the cultural warriors of the New Left, thinking them shallow and feckless. No more. There is today not much distance…” quote by Kim R. Holmes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/3aa/kim-r-holmes-34917_democratic-party_w-hat-is-historically-new-is-the-allianc_316769.jpg)
![“It [August 10th 1792] was the bloodiest day of the Revolution so far, but also one of the most decisive.” quote by William Doyle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d89/william-doyle-68265_august_it-august-10th-1792-was-the-bloodiest-da_77206.jpg)
