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
The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Education is the key to freedom, while ignorance breeds oppression.
This quote from Maximilien Robespierre emphasizes the critical role of education in achieving personal and societal freedom. It suggests that an informed populace is essential for maintaining liberty, whereas a lack of knowledge and understanding allows tyranny to flourish, as it prevents individuals from recognizing and challenging oppression.
Themes
EducationFreedomIgnoranceTyrannySociety
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of education at a community event.
More from Maximilien Robespierre
All quotes βTerror 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
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.
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
Similar quotes
The child who desires education will be bettered by it; the child who dislikes it disgraced.
John RuskinRead
How can we expect young people to be rooted in things such as character, morality and honesty? How is one supposed to be at once an arrow soaring skyward and an oak planted firmly in the ground? The meritocratic culture hones strivers on every aspect of their lives save one - how to cultivate character.
David BrooksRead
I believe in women. I desire . . . to do those things that would advance women in moral and spiritual, as well as educational work.
Emmeline B. WellsRead
One of the first things a family tries to teach its children is the difference between good and evil, right and wrong. One of the first things our schools do is destroy that distinction.
John Taylor GattoRead
There is no real education that does not respond to felt need; anything else acquired is trifling display.
Allan BloomRead
Sometimes parents squash students' interests because they are afraid of science or math. So they don't participate. You don't have to know the answers to engage kids; you just have to let them know it's important.
Mae JemisonRead