Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette quotes

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer who played a key role in both the American and French Revolutions. His leadership and diplomatic skills helped strengthen the alliance between France and the United States. He is celebrated as a champion of liberty on both sides of the Atlantic. Here are 13 of his quotes:

True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I reflect, and out of all of this I try to form an idea into which I put as much common sense as I can.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

Humanity has gained its suit; Liberty will nevermore be without an asylum.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of duties.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

Humanity has won its battle. Liberty now has a country.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

An irresistible passion that would induce me to believe in innate ideas, and the truth of prophecy, has decided my career. I have always loved liberty with the enthusiasm which actuates the religious man with the passion of a lover, and with the conviction of a geometrician.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I reflect, and out of all of this I try to form an idea into which I put as much common sense as I can. I shall not speak much for fear of saying foolish things; I will risk still less for fear of doing them, for I am not disposed to abuse the confidence which they have deigned to show me. Such is the conduct which until now I have followed and will follow.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate, just as national sovereignty is above the secondary agreements of the government.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette

An irresistible passion that would induce me to believe in innate ideas, and the truth of prophecy, has decided my career. I have always loved liberty with the enthusiasm which actuates the religious man with the passion of a lover, and with the conviction of a geometrician. On leaving college, where nothing had displeased me more than a state of dependance, I viewed the greatness and the littleness of the court with contempt, the frivolities of society with pity, the minute pedantry of the army with disgust, and oppression of every sort with indignation. The attraction of the American revolution transported me suddenly to my place. I felt myself tranquil only when sailing between the continent whose powers I had braved, and that where, although our arrival and our ultimate success were problematical, I could, at the age of nineteen, take refuge in the alternative of conquering or perishing in the cause to which I had devoted myself.

Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette