Act I.
Dantons Tod (Danton's Death) (1835)
“I believe that saying a thing is to keep its virtues and take away its terror.”
Ibid., p. 55
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Creio que dizer uma coisa é conservar-lhe a virtude e tirar-lhe o terror.
Speech to the National Convention, (5 February 1794), as quoted in The Bolshevik Revolution, 1917-1923, Vol. 1 (1951) by Edward Hallett Carr, p. 154
Variant translations:
The attribute of popular government in a revolution is at one and the same time virtue and terror. Terror without virtue is fatal; virtue without terror is impotent. The terror is nothing but justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is thus an emanation of virtue.
As quoted in Red Star Over Southern Africa (1988) by Morgan Norval, p. xvi
If the mainspring of popular government in peace time is virtue, its resource during a revolution is at one and the same time virtue and terror; virtue, without which terror is merely terrible; terror, without which virtue is simply powerless.
As quoted in Rousseau, Robespierre and English Romanticism (1999) by Gregory Dart
Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue; it is not so much a special principle as it is a consequence of the general principle of democracy applied to our country's most urgent needs.
Original French: La terreur n'est autre chose que la justice prompte, sévère, inflexible; elle est donc une émanation de la vertu ; elle est moins un principe particulier, qu’une conséquence du principe général de la démocratie, appliqué aux plus pressants besoins de la patrie.
From Sur les principes de morale politique http://www.royet.org/nea1789-1794/archives/discours/robespierre_principes_morale_politique_05_02_94.htm
"On the Principles of Political Morality that Should Guide the National Convention in the Domestic Administration of the Republic" (5 February 1784/18 Ploviôse Year 2)
"On the Principles of Political Morality"
As quoted in "According to Plan" in TIME magazine (13 March 1950) http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,812125,00.html
“The virtue of Paganism was strength: the virtue of Christianity is obedience.”
Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare Guesses at Truth (London: Macmillan, ([1827-48] 1867) p. 1.
Misattributed
Mace Windu's Oath of Office, p. 213
Shatterpoint (2004)
“The yeoman farmers of the United States have always been the strength of the republic.”
The North British Review (April 1870), p. 268, quoted in G. E. Fasnacht, Acton's Political Philosophy. An Analysis (1952), p. 217
Time (8 June 1981) " An Interview with Gaddafi http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,922551-2,00.html"
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