Louis Antoine de Saint-Just: Doing

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just was military and political leader. Explore interesting quotes on doing.
Louis Antoine de Saint-Just: 50   quotes 17   likes

“Those who make revolutions by halves do nothing but dig their own tombs.”

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

(January 1793) [Source: Oeuvres Complètes de Saint-Just, vol. 1 (2 vols., Paris, 1908), p. 414]

“Insurrection is the exclusive right of the people and of the citizen. Every foreigner, every man clothed with public authority, is outlawed if he proposes it and must be put to death as a usurper of sovereignty and as interested in fomenting troubles for the purpose of doing evil or of adorning himself. Insurrections taking place under a despotism are always salutary. Those which break out in a free state are sometimes dangerous for liberty itself, because the revolt usurps its sublime pretexts and its sacred name. Revolts in free states leave long and painful wounds which bleed a whole century.”

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

(1794) [Source: Saint-Just, Fragments sur les institutions républicaines]

Death , Pain , People , Evil

“One cannot reign innocently: the insanity of doing so is evident. Every king is a rebel and a usurper.”

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

On ne peut point régner innocemment : la folie en est trop évidente. Tout roi est un rebelle et un usurpateur.
Sur le jugement de Louis XVI (1er discours) http://www.royet.org/nea1789-1794/archives/discours/stjust_jugement_louis16_1_13_11_92.htm, speech to the National Convention (November 13, 1792).

“Citizens, by what illusion could one persuade himself that you are inhuman. Your Revolutionary Tribunal has condemned three hundred rascals to death in a year. Has not the Spanish Inquisition done worse than that … Have the English assizes butchered no one in that period? … What of the kings of Europe, does anyone prate to them of pity? Ah, do not allow yourselves to grow soft-hearted!”

Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

Speech to the National Convention (February 26, 1794). [Source: Charles Vellay (ed.), Oeuvres Complètes de Saint-Just, Vol. 2 (2 vols., Paris, 1908), pp. 236-237]

Death , Heart