Maximilien Robespierre

“ Do you believe that without unity in action, without secrecy in its operations, without the certainty of finding support within the Convention that the government could triumph over so many obstacles and so many enemies? No. Only the most extreme ignorance, only the most profound perversity could claim that in such circumstances those who play the cruel game of vilifying those who are at the helm of affairs, of hindering their operations, of slandering their conduct are not enemies of the fatherland. It is not with impunity that you will leave aside the necessary force of opinion. ”

“ We wish, in a word, to fulfill the intentions of nature and the destiny of man, realize the promises of philosophy, and acquit providence of a long reign of crime and tyranny. That France, once illustrious among enslaved nations, may, by eclipsing the glory of all free countries that ever existed, become a model to nations, a terror to oppressors, a consolation to the oppressed, an ornament of the universe and that, by sealing the work with our blood, we may at least witness the dawn of the bright day of universal happiness. ”

“ Let us beware of slaying patriotism in the delusion that we are healing and moderating it.
By its very nature, patriotism is energetic and enthusiastic. Who can love his country coldly and moderately? Patriotism is the quality of common men who are not always capable of measuring the consequences of all their acts, and where is the patriot to be found who is so enlightened as never to err? If we admit the existence of moderates and cowards who act in good faith, why should there not also exist patriots in good faith, who sometimes err by excess of zeal? ”

“ To make war on crime is the path to the tomb and to immortality; to favor crime is the path to the throne and the scaffold. Perverse beings managed to throw the Republic and human reason into chaos. It’s a matter now of pulling them from this in order to create the harmony of the moral and political worlds. The French people have two guarantors of the possibility of executing this heroic enterprise: the current principles of representation and its own virtues. The moment in which we find ourselves is favorable, but it is perhaps unique. ”

“ All the enemies of the Constitution borrow the name and language of patriotism to spread error, discord and false principles. Writers prostitute their venal pens in this odious enterprise. It is thus that public opinion is excited and becomes disorganized; the general will becomes powerless and invalid and patriotism, without a system, without a plan, and without a determined objective, acts slowly and fruitlessly, or sometimes seconds, through blind impetuosity, the evil projects of the enemies of our freedom. ”

“ In the heat of an impassioned speech, Robespierre on one occasion defined the enthusiasm of the French Revolution in the following terms: "Indeed, gentlemen, it does state this absolute irresistible feeling, this profound aversion to tyranny, this enthusiasm for the oppressed, this great and profound love for mankind, without which no revolution can be anything else than a frightful crime annihilating a previous crime. Yes, indeed, we have the ambition to found the first republic in the world; we have the ambition to produce that which no man has ever produced before." ”

“ As long as this impure race exists the Republic will be unhappy and precarious. It’s up to you to deliver it by an imposing energy and an unalterable concert. Those who seek to divide us, those who stop the march of the government, those who slander it every day among you by perfidious insinuations, those who seek to form against it a dangerous coalition of all the evil passions, of irascible pride, of all the interests opposed to the public interest are your enemies and those of the fatherland. ”

“ It is time to designate clearly the purposes of the revolution and the point which we wish to attain: It is time we should examine ourselves the obstacles which yet are between us and our wishes, and the means most proper to realize them: A consideration simple and important which appears not yet to have been contemplated. Indeed, how could a base and corrupt government have dared to view themselves in the mirror of political rectitude? ”

“ But when opinion is degraded, when public spirit is twisted, the last hope of freedom is annihilated. The writer who prostitutes his pen to hatred, to despotism or corruption — betraying the cause of patriotism and humanity — is more vile than the prevaricating magistrate, more criminal than even the representative who sells out the rights of the people. ”

“ I know that we cannot flatter ourselves that we have attained perfection. But when one must support a republic surrounded by enemies, arm reason in favor of freedom, destroy prejudices, render void individual efforts against the public interest, moral and physical forces are necessary that nature has perhaps refused both to those who denounce us and those we combat.
The Committee has earned the hatred of kings and rascals; if you don’t believe in its zeal, in the services it has rendered to the public thing, smash this instrument. ”

“ I do not believe that the Republic is a word that can be trifled with, I do not believe that the Republic exists to be made sport of. The thing that is now being done is the best method of restoring the monarchy.
The Constitution is invoked in defense of Louis. I shall not take up all the arguments; let me simply say: to be sure, the Constitution forbids everything you have done so far. Be sure of that, in fact, you have no right to hold the King a prisoner; on the other hand, he has the right to demand his immediate liberation, not to mention compensation. The Constitution condemns you! ”

“ The Convention punished their accomplices and rose triumphant on the ruins of factions and under the aegis of the French people. But assassination remains to them. They attempted to deprave public morality and to extinguish the generous sentiments of which the love of freedom and of the fatherland are composed by banishing from the republic good sense, virtue and divinity. We proclaimed the divinity and the immortality of the soul; we commanded virtue in the name of the republic. Assassination remains to them. ”

“ Weaknesses, vices, prejudices are the road to monarchy. Carried away, too often perhaps, by the force of ancient habits, as well as by the innate imperfection of human nature, to false ideas and pusillanimous sentiments, we have more to fear from the excesses of weakness, than from excesses of energy. The warmth of zeal is not perhaps the most dangerous rock that we have to avoid; but rather that languour which ease produces and a distrust of our own courage. Therefore continually wind up the sacred spring of republican government, instead of letting it run down. ”

“ I need not say that only the love of justice and truth will guide my pen: it’s on this condition alone that, having descended from the tribune of the French Senate one can still climb to that of the universe and speak, not to the assembly — which can be agitated by the shock of diverse interests — but to humankind, whose interest is that of reason and general happiness. Perhaps when once one has left the theatre to sit among the spectators one can better judge the stage and the actors. ”

“ The truth is the only weapon that remains in the hands of the intrepid defenders of freedom in order to bring down the perfidious agents of aristocracy. He who seeks to debase, to divide, to paralyze the Convention is an enemy of the fatherland, whether he sits in this hall or is a foreigner (applause) . Whether he acts by stupidity or perversity he is of the party of the tyrants who make war upon us. ”

“ Attested to by the entire revolution, this virtue would not alone suffice to reassure us against the factions who attempt without cease to corrupt and tear apart the republic. What is the reason for this? It’s that there are two peoples in France. The one is the mass of citizens, pure, simple thirsting for justice and friends of liberty. It is this virtuous people that spills all its blood to found the republic that is imposing to internal enemies and shakes the thrones of tyrants. ”

“ In affording an audience to the lawyer of Louis XVI you are opening the struggle of despotism against liberty, you are organizing the right of calumny and blasphemy against the Republic. For, the right to defend the overthrown despot involves also the right to say anything in his favor that may be desired. You are giving a new lease of life to all the defeated factions; you encourage them, you inspire the defeated monarchism with new energy, you recognize the right to take sides for or against the King without let or hindrance. ”

“ The majority of the nation wants to rest under the auspices of the new Constitution, on the breast of freedom and peace. What causes have deprived it of this double advantage up till now? Ignorance and division. The majority desires the good, but it neither knows the means to reach this goal nor the obstacles that distance them from it. Even the best intentioned of men differ on the questions most strictly related to the general happiness. ”

“ But, when, by prodigious effects of courage and of reason, a whole people break asunder the fetters of despotism to make of the fragments trophies to liberty; when, by their innate vigor, they rise in a manner from the arms of death, to resume all the strength of youth when, in turns forgiving and inexorable, intrepid and docile, they can neither be checked by impregnable ramparts, nor by innumerable armies of tyrants leagued against them, and yet of themselves stop at the voice of the law ”