Ernest Belfort Bax

“ With the former, who, living in a densely populated country, with natural opportunities already preempted, the declarations concerning the "Rights of Man," or "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity," were an exact reflex of their material surrounding: the proletariat was not included in the "Rights of Man" or in "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity"; with the latter, who, finding themselves in an immense country, barely populated and natural opportunities accessible to all, their utterances included the whole human race. ”

“ Material interests determine man's view-point. But material interests are, in their turn, determined by no one circumstance. The material interests that fretted against feudal restraints gave general direction to the revolt of the French bourgeois, and thereby caused its direction to fall within that quarter of the compass into which the American Revolution fell. But the exact point of the compass touched by each depended upon secondary material conditions. With the French Revolution, a sufficiently defined proletarian class simultaneously mounted the historic stage ”

“ Especially if the American reader be a student, he will find the story of the French Revolution to be of invaluable aid to his understanding and appreciating those features of the story of the American Revolution without the understanding and appreciation of which the flavor of the American Revolution is lost, and many of the lessons of both are very materially forfeited. ”