34+ Maximilien Robespierre Quotes (Revolutionary, Radical And Executions)

Maximilien Robespierre was a French lawyer and political leader during the French Revolution. He was an influential member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary political group, and was instrumental in helping to instigate the Reign of Terror. He was eventually overthrown and executed in 1794 for his perceived excesses and radical policies.

Top 10 Maximilien Robespierre Quotes

1. The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
2. To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.
3. Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.
4. Softness to traitors will destroy us all.
5. Any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil.
6. The aim of constitutional government is to preserve the Republic; that of revolutionary government is to lay its foundation.
7. Terror is nothing more than justice, prompt, secure and inflexible.
8. 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 of liberty when victorious and peaceable.
9. One can...never create [freedom] by an invading force.
10. 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 country may live

Maximilien Robespierre Short Quotes

• Terror is only justice: prompt, severe and inflexible. It is then an emanation of virtue.
• Pity is treason.
• By sealing our work with our blood, we may see at least the bright dawn of universal happiness.
• The general will rules in society as the private will governs each separate individual.
• The king must die so that the country can live.
• When a Banker jumps out of a window, jump after him - that's where the money is.
• Establish liberty on a rock of brass.
• Citizens, did you want a revolution without revolution?
• Terror is nothing else than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible.

Maximilien Robespierre Famous Quotes And Sayings

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 of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing wants of the country. — 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

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

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

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 society as a whole. It is only the surplus that is private property and can be safely left to individual commercial enterprise. — Maximilien 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. — Maximilien Robespierre

Formerly, when a king died at Versailles the reign of his successor was immediately announced by the cry: "The king is dead, long live the king", in order to make it understood that despotism is immortal! Now an entire people, moved by a sublime instinct, cried: Long live the Republic! to teach the universe that tyranny died with the tyrant. — Maximilien Robespierre

Atheism is aristocratic; the idea of a great Being that watches over oppressed innocence and punishes triumphant crime is altogether popular. — Maximilien Robespierre

Crime butchers innocence to secure a throne, and innocence struggles with all its might against the attempts of crime. — Maximilien Robespierre

Death is not "an eternal sleep!" Citizens! efface from the tomb that motto, graven by sacrilegious hands, which spreads over all nature a funereal crape, takes from oppressed innocence its support, and affronts the beneficent dispensation of death! Inscribe rather thereon these words: "Death is the commencement of immortality!" — Maximilien Robespierre

lf the attribute of popular government in peace is virtue, the attribute of popular government in revolution is at one and the same time virtue and terror, virtue without which terror is fatal, terror without which virtue is impotent. The terror is nothing but justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is thus an emanation of virtue. — Maximilien Robespierre

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 themselves. — Maximilien Robespierre

Is it to be thought unreasonable that the people, in atonement for wrongs of a century, demand the vengeance of a single day? — Maximilien Robespierre

Smuggle out the truth, pass it through all the obstacles that its enemies fabricate; multiply, spread by all means possible her message so that she may triumph; through zeal and civic action counterbalance the influence of money and the machinations lavished on the propagation of deception. That, in my opinion, is the most useful activity and the most sacred duty of pure patriotism. — Maximilien Robespierre

No one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies. — Maximilien Robespierre

Life Lessons by Maximilien Robespierre

1. Maximilien Robespierre taught the importance of standing up for what you believe in, even in the face of adversity.
2. He also showed that it is important to remain true to yourself and your values, no matter the cost.
3. Finally, Robespierre demonstrated the power of perseverance and resilience in the face of opposition and difficulty.