“To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty. The severity of tyrants has barbarity for its principle; that of a republican government is founded on beneficence. Therefore let him beware who should dare to influence the people by that terror which is made only for their enemies! Let him beware, who, regarding the inevitable errors of civism in the same light, with the premeditated crimes of perfidiousness, or the attempts of conspirators, suffers the dangerous intriguer to escape and pursues the peaceable citizen! Death to the villain who dares abuse the sacred name of liberty or the powerful arms intended for her defence, to carry mourning or death to the patriotic heart...”

Principles to Form the Basis of the Administration of the Republic (February 1794)

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 "To punish the oppressors of humanity is clemency; to forgive them is cruelty. The severity of tyrants has barbarity for…" by Maximilien Robespierre?

Maximilien Robespierre78

French revolutionary lawyer and politician 1758–1794

Related quotes

“"Magna Carta is the Law: Let the King look out."
So it has always been with tyrants among our own people: when the King was tyrant, let him look out. And it has always been the same, and will be the same, whether the tyrant be the Barons, whether the tyrant be the Church, whether he be demagogue or dictator — let them look out.”

Stanley Baldwin (1867–1947) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech at Westminster Hall (4 July 1935); published in This Torch of Freedom: Speeches and Addresses (1935), p. 4
1935

“Let no one dare to call another mad who is not himself willing to rank in the same class for every perversion and fault of judgment. Let no one dare aid in punishing another as criminal who is not willing to suffer the penalty due to his own offenses.”

Margaret Fuller (1810–1850) American feminist, poet, author, and activist

Article, The New York Daily Tribune (22 February 1845), p. 19; quoted in Brilliant Bylines (1986) by Barbara Belford.

“Beware: the Government Is Armed and Dangerous.”

John Hospers (1918–2011) American philosopher and politician

Source: The Libertarian Alternative, (1977), p. 12

“Every instigator or madman, who will dare to raise his hand against the government, let him be sure that the government will chop it off.”

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (1954) 12th President of Turkey from 2014

Speech delivered after the military coup, 2016

“For a deadly blow let him pay with a deadly blow; it is for him who has done a deed to suffer.”

Aeschylus The Libation Bearers

Source: Oresteia (458 BC), The Libation Bearers, line 312

“Beware of knowing your virtues; you may lose them. Beware of knowing your vices; you may forgive them.”

James Richardson (1950) American poet

#166
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001)

“In modern language we think of "idiot" as someone who is stupid or a fool. That is not the classical meaning... An idiot is someone who cares only about himself and has no regard for anyone else, and that's terribly important when you think about tyrants. ...We think of tyrants as people who are horrible... oppressors. ...In its classic historic meaning, tyrant was simply someone who ceased power.”

David Cay Johnston (1948) Investigative journalist and author

The Tyrant Next Time (November 7, 2019)

“We have carried out the attempted premeditated murder of an entire nation. We were caught in that criminal act and have been obstructed. Now we have to suffer the punishment…. In the Balkan Wars, Serbia not only doubled its territory, but also its external enemies.”

Dimitrije Tucović (1881–1914) Serbian politician

T. Gallagher, The Balkans in the New Millennium: In the Shadow of War and Peace, Routledge, 2006. ISBN 0415349400

“Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness.”

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher

Bk. III, ch. 11.
1840s, Past and Present (1843)

“And I say to my people's masters: Beware,
Beware of the thing that is coming, beware of the risen people,
who shall take what ye would not give. Did ye think to conquer the people,
Or that Law is stronger than life and than men's desire to be free?
We will try it out with you, ye that have harried and held,
Ye that have bullied and bribed, tyrants, hypocrites, liars!”

Patrick Pearse The Rebel

"The Rebel"

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Maximilien Robespierre78

Related quotes

Related topics