Quotes by Maximilien Robespierre

• The general will rules in society as the private will governs each separate individual.
• Pity is treason.
• To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.
• The king must die so that the country can live.
• 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.
• Atheism is aristocratic; the idea of a great Being that watches over oppressed innocence and punishes triumphant crime is altogether popular.
• 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.
• Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.
• The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
• Any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil.
• Crime butchers innocence to secure a throne, and innocence struggles with all its might against the attempts of crime.