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
It is commonly said that a teacher fails if he has not been surpassed by his students. There has been no failure on our part in this regard considering how far they have gone.
Edmond H. FischerRead
Teach and practice, practice and teach - that is all we have; that is all we are good for; that is all we ever ought to do.
Ernest HolmesRead
Governments want efficient technicians, not human beings, because human beings become dangerous to governments β and to organized religions as well. That is why governments and religious organizations seek to control education.
Jiddu KrishnamurtiRead
The facilities for advanced education must be evened out and multiplied. No one who can take advantage of a higher education should be denied this chance. You cannot conduct a modern community except with an adequate supply of persons upon whose education, whether humane, technical, or scientific, much time and money have been spent.
Winston ChurchillRead
My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.
Mark TwainRead
The person who deserves most pity is a lonesome one on a rainy day who doesn't know how to read.
Benjamin FranklinRead