Any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil.
--Maximilien Robespierre
Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.
--Maximilien Robespierre
Chance and intrigue have produced more heroes than genius and virtue.
--Maximilien Robespierre
Death is the beginning of immortality.
--Maximilien Robespierre
Omelettes are not made without breaking eggs.
--Maximilien 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 Robespierre
Pity is treason.
--Maximilien Robespierre
Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore 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.
--Maximilien Robespierre
The aim of constitutional government is to preserve the Republic; that of revolutionary government is to lay its foundation.
--Maximilien Robespierre
The general will rule in society as the private will governs each separate individual.
--Maximilien Robespierre
The government in a revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.
--Maximilien 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 Robespierre
The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
--Maximilien Robespierre
To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.
--Maximilien Robespierre
We must smother the internal and external enemies of the Republic or perish with it; now in this situation, the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead the people by reason and the people's enemies by terror.
--Maximilien Robespierre
When a Banker jumps out of a window, jump after him- that's where the money is.
--Maximilien Robespierre
When work is a pleasure, life is a joy! When work is a duty, life is slavery.
--Maximilien Robespierre
Found 17 occurence(s) in 52,543 quotation(s).