“Terror consists mostly of useless cruelties perpetrated by frightened people in order to reassure themselves.”

—  Friedrich Engels

Letter to Marx http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1870/letters/70_09_04.htm (4 September 1870)

Original

La Terreur, das sind großenteils nutzlose Grausamkeiten, begangen von Leuten, die selbst Angst haben, zu ihrer Selbstberuhigung.

http://archive.org/stream/derbriefwechsel00marxgoog#page/n349/mode/2up

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Friedrich Engels 87
German social scientist, author, political theorist, and ph… 1820–1895

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