He was a French lawyer and politician who became one of the most influential figures of the French Revolution and
without his influence the revolution would have turned out a lot differently. Robespierre was heavily influenced by the
theories of the popular philosopher, Jean Jacques Rousseau. This led to Robespierre's belief in deism, democracy, and the natural goodness in man.
Robespierre became increasingly popular for his attacks on the monarchy and his advocacy of democratic reforms.
(1758-1794)
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.
~ Maximilien Robespierre
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.
~ Maximilien Robespierre
Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.
~ Maximilien Robespierre
Atheism is aristocratic; the idea of a great Being that watches over oppressed innocence and punishes triumphant crime is altogether popular.
~ Maximilien Robespierre
Crime butchers innocence to secure a throne, and innocence struggles with all its might against the attempts of crime.
~ Maximilien Robespierre
To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.
~ Maximilien Robespierre
Pity is treason.
~ Maximilien Robespierre
The general will rules in society as the private will governs each separate individual.
~ Maximilien Robespierre
Any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil.
~ Maximilien Robespierre
The king must die so that the country can live.
~ Maximilien Robespierre
The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
~ Maximilien Robespierre
Voltaire was a Renaissance man and accomplished playwright, man of letters, politician, and metaphysician.
Voltaire's intelligence, wit and style made him one of France's greatest writers and philosophers.
Voltaire was often an outspoken critic of religious intolerance and persecution.
Given his tendency to engage in polemical attacks on the government and the Catholic church, Voltaire more
than once found himself in a thorny legal position and forced into various exiles and imprisonments.
(1694-1778)
A learned man is an idler who kills time by study.
~ George Bernard Shaw
A day wasted on others is not wasted on one's self.
~ Charles Dickens
I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm;
then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.
~ Socrates
