Maximilien De Robespierre Quotes & Sayings

To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty. — Maximilien De Robespierre

Our revolution has made me feel the full force of the axiom that history is fiction and I am convinced that chance and intrigue have produced more heroes than genius and virtue. — Maximilien De Robespierre

Peoples do not judge in the same way as courts of law; they do not hand down sentences, they throw thunderbolts; they do not condemn kings, they drop them back into the void; and this justice is worth just as much as that of the courts. — Maximilien De Robespierre

If the spring of popular government in time of peace is virtue, the springs of popular government in revolution are at once virtue and terror. Virtue, without which terror is fatal; terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing other than justice, prompts, severe, inflexible. It is there an emanation of virtue. It is not so much a special principle as it is a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country's most urgent needs ... is force made only to protect crime? And is the thunderbolt not destined to strike the heads of the proud? ... Are the enemies within not the allies of the enemies without? ... — Maximilien De Robespierre

[redacted: no source given]. — Maximilien De Robespierre

A nation is truly corrupted when having ... lost its character and it's liberty, it passes from democracy to aristocracy or to monarchy. That is the decrepitude and death of the body politic ... — Maximilien De Robespierre

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, weapons in hand, among a foreign people and expect to have its laws and constitution embraced. No one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies. — Maximilien De Robespierre

Is it not He whose immortal hand ... has written there the death sentence of tyrants? He did not create kings to devour the human race. He did not create priests to harness us, like vile animals, to the chariots of kings and to give to the world examples of baseness, pride, perfidy, avarice, debauchery and falsehood. He created the universe to proclaim His power.
[The Cult of the Supreme Being] — Maximilien De Robespierre

It has been said that terror is the principle of despotic government. Does your government therefore resemble despotism? Yes, as the sword that gleams in the hands of the heroes of liberty resembles that with which the henchmen of tyranny are armed ... The government of the revolution is liberty's despotism against tyranny. Is force made only to protect crime — Maximilien De Robespierre

The king must die so that the country can live. — Maximilien De Robespierre

A sensibility that wails almost exclusively over the enemies of liberty seems suspect to me. Stop shaking the tyrant's bloody robe in my face, or I will believe that you wish to put Rome in chains. — Maximilien De Robespierre

Virtue, without which terror is destructive; terror, without which virtue is impotent. Terror is only justice prompt, severe and inflexible; it is then an emanation of virtue. — Maximilien De Robespierre

Terror is nothing else than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible. — Maximilien De Robespierre

The revolutionary government owes to the good citizen all the protection of the nation; it owes nothing to the Enemies of the People but death. — Maximilien De Robespierre

To defend the oppressed against their oppressors, to plead the cause of the weak against the strong who exploit and crush them, this is the duty of all hearts that have not been spoiled by egoism and corruption ... It is so sweet to devote oneself to one's fellows that I do not know how there can be so many unfortunates still without support or defenders. As for me, my life's task will be to help those who suffer and to pursue through my avenging speech those who take pleasure in the pain of others. How happy I will be if my feeble efforts are crowned with success and if, at the price of my devotion and sacrifices, my reputation is not tarnished by the crimes of the oppressors I will fight. — Maximilien De Robespierre

The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant. — Maximilien De Robespierre

The general will rules in society as the private will governs each separate individual. — Maximilien De Robespierre

There are only two parties in France: the people and its enemies. We must exterminate those miserable villains who are eternally conspiring against the rights of man ... We must exterminate all our enemies. — Maximilien De Robespierre