No one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies.

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.

One can...never create [freedom] by an invading force.

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.

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

Is it to be thought unreasonable that the people, in atonement for wrongs of a century, demand the vengeance of a single day?

The most extravagant idea that can be born in the head of a political thinker is to believe that it suffices for people to enter, weapons in hand, among a foreign people and expect to have its laws and constitution embraced. No one loves armed missionaries; the first lesson of nature and prudence is to repulse them as enemies.