Terror is nothing more than justice, prompt, secure and inflexible.

The general will rules in society as the private will governs each separate individual.

Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.

Food that is necessary for man’s existence is as sacred as life itself. Everything that is indispensable for its preservation is the common property of society as a whole. It is only the surplus that is private property and can be safely left to individual commercial enterprise.

Formerly, when a king died at Versailles the reign of his successor was immediately announced by the cry: "The king is dead, long live the king", in order to make it understood that despotism is immortal! Now an entire people, moved by a sublime instinct, cried: Long live the Republic! to teach the universe that tyranny died with the tyrant.

To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty.

Terror is nothing else than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible.