The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
Maximilien RobespierreRead
The revolution is the war of liberty against its enemies. The constitution is the rule of liberty against its enemies. The constitution is the rule of liberty when victorious and peaceable.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of revolution and law in the fight for freedom.
Maximilien Robespierre's quote highlights the dual nature of liberty's struggle—through revolution, which confronts oppression, and through the constitution, which serves as a guiding principle to preserve freedom once it is achieved. It suggests that true liberty must be defended against both active enemies and passive threats, and that law plays a crucial role in maintaining peace and order post-revolution.
Themes
LibertyRevolutionConstitutionFreedomLaw
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech on democracy, one might quote Robespierre to emphasize the importance of standing up against tyranny.
More from Maximilien Robespierre
All quotes →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 RobespierreRead
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 RobespierreRead
Any institution which does not suppose the people good, and the magistrate corruptible, is evil.
Maximilien RobespierreRead
Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.
Maximilien RobespierreRead
Peoples do not judge in the same way as courts of law; they do not hand down sentences, they throw thunderbolts; they do not condemn kings, they drop them back into the void; and this justice is worth just as much as that of the courts.
Maximilien RobespierreRead
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