Maximilien Robespierre

Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was one of the leaders of the French Revolution. Also known as "the Incorruptible". He was an influential member of the Committee of Public Safety and was instrumental in the period of the Revolution commonly known as the Reign of Terror that ended with his arrest and execution.

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• 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.
  • Original French: La plus extravagante idée qui puisse naître dans la tête d'un politique est de croire qu'il suffise à un peuple d'entrer à main armée chez un peuple étranger, pour lui faire adopter ses lois et sa constitution. Personne n'aime les missionnaires armés; et le premier conseil que donnent la nature et la prudence, c'est de les repousser comme des ennemis.
  • From Sur la guerre (1ère intervention), speech to the Jacobin Club, January 2, 1792.

• Citizens, did you want a revolution without revolution?
  • Original French: Citoyens, vouliez-vous une révolution sans révolution?
  • From Réponse à J.- B. Louvet, speech to the National Convention, November 5, 1792.

• It is with regret that I pronounce the fatal truth: Louis must die that the country may live.
  • Original French: Je prononce à regret cette fatale vérité... mais Louis doit mourir, parce qu'il faut que la patrie vive.
  • From the speech to the National Convention on the judgment of Louis XVI, December 3, 1792.

• 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.
  • Original French: Notre révolution m'a fait sentir tout le sens de l'axiome qui dit que l'histoire est un roman ; et je suis convaincu que la fortune et l'intrigue ont fait plus de héros, que le génie et la vertu.
  • From Lettres à ses commettants, 1ère série, n°10, December 21, 1792.

• Any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil.
  • Original French: Tout institution qui ne suppose pas le peuple bon et le magistrat corruptible est vicieuse.
  • From article 19 of the Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen, April 21, 1793.

• 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.
  • Original French: La terreur n'est autre chose que la justice prompte, sévère, inflexible; elle est donc une émanation de la vertu ; elle est moins un principe particulier, qu’une conséquence du principe général de la démocratie, appliqué aux plus pressants besoins de la patrie.
  • From Sur les principes de morale politique, speech to the National Convention, February 5, 1794.

• The government in a revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.
  • Original French: Le gouvernement de la révolution est le despotisme de la liberté contre la tyrannie.
  • From a speech to the National Convention, February 5, 1794.

• By sealing our work with our blood, we may see at least the bright dawn of universal happiness.
  • Original French: En scellant notre ouvrage de notre sang, nous puissions voir au moins briller l'aurore de la félicité universelle.
  • From a speech to the National Convention, February 5, 1794.

• 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.
  • Original French: Il faut étouffer les ennemis intérieurs et extérieurs de la République, ou périr avec elle ; or, dans cette situation, la première maxime de votre politique doit être qu’on conduit le peuple par la raison, et les ennemis du peuple par la terreur.
  • From a speech to the National Convention, February 5, 1794.

• Death is the beginning of immortality.
  • Original French: La mort est le commencement de l'immortalité.
  • From his last speech to the National Convention, July 26, 1794.

• The attribute of popular government in a revolution is at one and the same time virtue and terror. Virtue without terror is fatal; terror without virtue is impotent. The terror is nothing but justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is thus an emanation of virtue."
  • As quoted in Red Star Over Southern Africa (1988) by Morgan Norval, p. xvi
  • Variant translation: If the mainspring of popular government in peace time is virtue, its resource during a revolution is at one and the same time virtue and terror; virtue without which terror is merely terrible; terror without which virtue is simply powerless.
    • As quoted in Rousseau, Robespierre and English Romanticism (1999) by Gregory Dart