Maximilien Robespierre quotes - page 4

You complain that I have committed illegal acts. Of course I have. We all have. The Revolution is illegal. The fall of the Bastille was illegal. The formation of this republic was illegal, as illegal as liberty itself. Citizens, did you want a revolution without a revolution? (Maximilien Robespierre)
Ask that merchant in human flesh what property is. He will tell you, pointing to the long bier that he calls a ship and in which he has herded and shackled men who still appear to be alive: "Those are my property; I bought them at so much a head.”. View quote
Maximilien Robespierre
For all these things have been illegal, as illegal as the Revolution, as the fall of the Monarchy and of the Bastille, as illegal as liberty itself. View quote
Maximilien Robespierre
The king must die so that the country can live. View quote
Maximilien Robespierre
To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty. View quote
Maximilien Robespierre
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. View quote
Maximilien Robespierre
The law, the public authority: is it not established to protect weakness against injustice and oppression? It is thus an offence to all social principles place it entirely in the hands of the rich. But the rich, the powerful, have reasoned differently, Through a strange abuse of words, they have restricted the general idea of property to certain objects only; they have called only themselves property owners: they have claimed that only property owners were worthy of the name of citizen; they have named their own particular interest the general interest, and to ensure the success of that claim, they have seized all social power. View quote
Maximilien Robespierre
The resources necessary to man are as sacred as life itself. Everything that is indispensable for its preservation is a property common to all of society. Only the surplus is private property and is abandoned to the industry of merchants. Any mercantile speculation that I make at the cost of the life of my countrymen is not trade, but brigandage and fratricide. View quote
Maximilien Robespierre
I can hardly believe that it took a revolution to teach the world that extreme disparities in wealth lie at the root of many ills and crimes, but we are not the less convinced that the realization of an equality of fortunes is a visionary's dream. View quote
Maximilien Robespierre
We want, in a word, to fulfil nature's wishes, to further the destinies of humanity, to keep the promises of philosophy, to absolve providence of the long reign of crime and tyranny. So that France, once illustrious among enslaved countries, eclipsing the glory of all the free peoples that have existed, may become the model for all nations, the terror of oppressors, the consolation of the oppressed, the ornament of the universe. View quote
Maximilien Robespierre
But how would our vile calumniators la feel it? How would the man born blind not have the idea of light? Nature has refused them a soul; they have some right to doubt, not only the immortality of the soul, but its existence. (Maximilien Robespierre)