The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant.
Maximilien RobespierreRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Loving justice and equality comes naturally when individuals prioritize self-love.
Maximilien Robespierre suggests that the foundation of a just and equal society does not necessarily require extraordinary virtue from its people. Instead, if individuals are able to love themselves, this self-love will naturally extend to a love for justice and equality, promoting a harmonious societal structure where fairness prevails.
Themes
JusticeEqualitySelf-LoveVirtueSociety
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about promoting social justice.
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.
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Any law which violates the inalienable rights of man is essentially unjust and tyrannical; it is not a law at all.
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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.
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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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