“The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.”

— Georg Büchner , Danton's Death

Act I.
Dantons Tod (Danton's Death) (1835)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty against tyranny." by Georg Büchner?

Georg Büchner 43

German dramatist and writer of poetry and prose 1813–1837

Related quotes

“The government in a revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

Original: (fr) Le gouvernement de la révolution est le despotisme de la liberté contre la tyrannie.
Source: Speech to the National Convention http://www.royet.org/nea1789-1794/archives/discours/robespierre_principes_morale_politique_05_02_94.htm (5 February 1794)

“Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot.”

Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America

Source: Democracy in America, Volume I (1835), Chapter XV-IXX, Chapter XVII.
Context: Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity?

“When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

First attributed to Jefferson in 1945, this does not appear in any known Jefferson document. When governments fear the people, there is liberty... http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/When_governments_fear_the_people,_there_is_liberty...(Quotation), Thomas Jefferson Encyclopedia. It first appears in 1914, in [Barnhill, John Basil, John Basil Barnhill, Indictment of Socialism No. 3, Barnhill-Tichenor Debate on Socialism, http://debs.indstate.edu/b262b3_1914.pdf, PDF, 2008-10-16, 1914, National Rip-Saw Publishing, Saint Louis, Missouri, p. 34]
Misattributed
Variant: Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.

“The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.”

George Mason (1725–1792) American delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention

Article 12
Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)

“Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty.”

John Basil Barnhill

Indictment of Socialism (#3) http://debs.indstate.edu/b262b3_1914.pdf, transcript of Barnhill-Tichenor Debate on Socialism (1914)
This quote is often erroneously attributed to Thomas Jefferson

“All government, of course, is against liberty.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

“The strongest reason for the people to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against the tyranny of government.”

Jeff Cooper (1920–2006) American journalist

“We are not to expect to be translated from despotism to liberty in a featherbed.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette (2 April 1790)
1790s

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

According to the Jefferson Library, this is among the many statements misattributed to Jefferson. http://wiki.monticello.org/mediawiki/index.php/Category:Spurious_Quotations
Misattributed

“Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Letter to his Italian friend, Philip Mazzei (1796)
1790s

“The revolutionary government is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Georg Büchner 43

Related quotes

Related topics