“Those who make revolutions by halves do nothing but dig their own tombs.”
(January 1793) [Source: Oeuvres Complètes de Saint-Just, vol. 1 (2 vols., Paris, 1908), p. 414]
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Louis Antoine de Saint-Just 25
military and political leader 1767–1794Related quotes
“Whoever finishes a revolution only halfway, digs his own grave.”
Act I.
Dantons Tod (Danton's Death) (1835)
“To do nothing by halves is the way of noble spirits.”
Nichts halb zu thun ist edler Geister Art.
Oberon, Song 5, st. 30 http://www.archive.org/stream/oberon02187gut/7ober10.txt; translation from A. B. Faust (ed.) Oberon (New York: F. S. Crofts, 1940) p. 326.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
Address to Latin American diplomats at the White House (13 March 1962) http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=9100&st=&st1=
1962
From an Interview Enríquez held shortly after the military coup of September 11, 1973 that ended the democratically elected Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende
“It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose.”
Source: An Outcast of the Islands (1896), Pt. 3, Ch. 2; possibly an adaptation of a Polish proverb, "Ten się nie myli, kto nic nie robi" — "One is not wrong, who does nothing."
“He said nothing: seldom do those who are silent make mistakes.”
Source: Norse Mythology (2017), Chapter 4, “Mimir’s Head and Odin’s Eye” (p. 45)
" Thoughts on Politics and Revolution: A Commentary http://books.google.com/books?id=iMIPAQAAMAAJ&q="Revolutionaries+do+not+make+revolutions+The+revolutionaries+are+those+who+know+when+power+is+lying+in+the+street+and+when+they+can+pick+it+up+Armed"".
Crises of the Republic (1969)
“Be content to remember that those who can make omelettes properly can do nothing else.”
IV. On Making an Omelette
A Conversation with a Cat, and Others (1931)
“There is nothing illegal in keeping up a tomb; on the contrary, it is a very laudable thing to do.”
In re Tyler, Tyler v. Tyler (1891), L. R. 3 C. D. [1891], p. 258.