“The weapon of the Republic is terror, and virtue is its strength.”
Act I.
Dantons Tod (Danton's Death) (1835)
“I believe that saying a thing is to keep its virtues and take away its terror.”
—
Fernando Pessoa
,
book
The Book of Disquiet
Ibid., p. 55
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Creio que dizer uma coisa é conservar-lhe a virtude e tirar-lhe o terror.
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Fernando Pessoa 288
Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publi… 1888–1935Related quotes
IV, 43
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV
Osama bin Laden
(1957–2011) founder of al-Qaeda
Video statement broadcast on the Arabic-language Al-Jazeera TV station. (26 December 2001) http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/world/0302/timeline.bin.laden.audio/content.5.html.
2000s, 2002
Cynthia Nixon
(1966) American actress
As quoted in New York Gubernatorial Candidate Cynthia Nixon Calls ICE a 'Terrorist Organization' https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/New-York-Gubernatorial-Candidate-Cynthia-Nixon-ICE-Terrorist-Organization-NYC-486273771.html (June 22, 2018) by R. Darren Price, WNBC
Joe Hill
(1879–1915) Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World
Source: NOS4A2
Maximilien Robespierre
(1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician
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
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)