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 RobespierreCrime butchers innocence to secure a throne, and innocence struggles with all its might against the attempts of crime.
Maximilien RobespierreNo one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies.
Maximilien RobespierreIs it to be thought unreasonable that the people, in atonement for wrongs of a century, demand the vengeance of a single day?
Maximilien RobespierreSmuggle out the truth, pass it through all the obstacles that its enemies fabricate; multiply, spread by all means possible her message so that she may triumph; through zeal and civic action counterbalance the influence of money and the machinations lavished on the propagation of deception. That, in my opinion, is the most useful activity and the most sacred duty of pure patriotism.
Maximilien Robespierre