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French Revolution Quotes

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French Revolution Quotes

“Unlike the rationalism of the French Revolution, true liberalism has no quarrel with religion, and I can only deplore the militant and essentially illiberal antireligionism which animated so much of nineteenth-century Continental liberalism. ... What distinguishes the liberal from the conservative here is that, however profound his own spiritual beliefs, he will never regard himself as entitled to impose them on others and that for him the spiritual and the temporal are different sphere which ought not to be confused.”

I CanDifferentSpiritualReligionBeliefCenturyRevolutionOughtRespectRegardProfoundConservativeConfusedLiberalismSpheresEntitledQuarrelsAnimatedNineteenth CenturyMilitantRationalismFrench RevolutionContinentalSpiritual Beliefs
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“The annals of the French Revolution prove that the knowledge of the few cannot counteract the ignorance of the many.... The light of philosophy, when it is confined to a small minority, points out the possessors as the victims rather than the illuminators of the multitude.”

PhilosophyLightAtheismIgnoranceRevolutionProveVictimPositive AtheismMinoritiesMultitudesConfinedFrench Revolution
Book:The Friend: a series of essays ... First American, from the second London edition
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“It's not uncommon for revolutions to stem from a radicalized group just outside the circle of power. That's what the French Revolution was all about; that's what the American Revolution was. The question is: Will all those groups, because of the nature of partisan polarization and ideological polarization, just fight each other? Or is there capacity to organize?”

FightingGroupsRevolutionCapacityCirclesStemOrganizeIdeologicalPartisansAmerican RevolutionUncommonFrench RevolutionPolarization
Author:Chris Hayes
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“The French Revolution will be found to have had great influence on the strength of parties, and on the subsequent political transactions of the United States.”

StatesPoliticalFoundUnitedPartyUnited StatesInfluenceRevolutionTransactionsFrench RevolutionGreat Influence
Book:The Life of George Washington: Commander in Chief of the American Forces, During the War which Established the Independence of His Country, and First President of the United States. Comp. Under the Inspection of the Honourable Bushrod Washington, from Original Papers Bequeathed to Him by His Deceased Relative
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“Most observers of the French Revolution, especially the clever and noble ones, have explained it as a life-threatening and contagious illness. They have remained standing with the symptoms and have interpreted these in manifold and contrary ways. Some have regarded it as a merely local ill. The most ingenious opponents have pressed for castration. They well noticed that this alleged illness is nothing other than the crisis of beginning puberty.”

WayWellsRevolutionStandingCrisisIllIllnessNobleContraryCleverLocalsOpponentsThreateningSymptomsObserversContagiousIngeniousPubertyFrench RevolutionManifoldCastration
Author:Novalis
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“In comparison to the French Revolution, the American Revolution has come to seem a parochial and rather dull event. This, despitethe fact that the American Revolution was successful--realizing the purposes of the revolutionaries and establishing a durable political regime--while the French Revolution was a resounding failure, devouring its own children and leading to an imperial despotism, followed by an eventual restoration of the monarchy.”

ChildrenFactsSeemsPoliticalPurposeRealizingSuccessfulEventsRevolutionRevolutionaryDullComparisonRegimesMonarchyRestorationDespotismAmerican RevolutionFrench RevolutionDevouring
Author:Irving Kristol
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“The French Revolution, Fichte's Theory of Knowledge, and Goethe's Wilhelm Meister are the three greatest tendencies of the age. Whoever takes offence at this combination, and whoever does not consider a revolution important unless it is blatant and palpable, has not yet risen to the lofty and broad vantage point of the history of mankind.”

DoeImportantAgeThreeHistoryMankindTheoryRevolutionTendenciesCombinationBroadsLoftyRisenOffenceFrench RevolutionVantage PointTheory Of Knowledge
Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
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“My History of the Jesuits is in four volumes.... This society has been a greater calamity to mankind than the French Revolution, or Napoleon's despotism or ideology. It has obstructed progress of reformation and the improvement of the human mind in society much longer and more fatally.”

MindHumansHas BeensGreaterFourProgressMankindRevolutionHistoricalImprovementIdeologyHuman MindVolumeCalamityReformationDespotismThis SocietyFrench RevolutionJesuit
Book:The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States: With a Life of the Author, Notes and Illustrations
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“However much the various phases of the French Revolution may have modelled themselves on Roman history the early phase on Republican virtue, the later on Imperial grandeur the fact remains that classicism depended on a fixed and rational philosophy; whereas the spirit of the Revolution was one of change and of emotion.”

MayPhilosophyFactsSpiritEmotionVirtueRevolutionRepublicanRemainsVariousRationalFixedPhasesGrandeurFrench RevolutionClassicism
Book:The romantic rebellion: romantic versus classic art
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“The French Revolution gave us three... powerful ideas, or concepts - liberty, equality and fraternity. But these ideas... are not only right in themselves, but they are so because they come in the proper order. You cannot have equality without liberty, and you certainly cannot have fraternity without equality. The importance of this I learnt from music, because music evolves in time, and therefore the order inevitably determines the content.”

IdeasOrderThreePowerfulLibertyRevolutionMusic IsConceptsImportanceDetermineEvolveFraternityFrench Revolution
Author:Daniel Barenboim
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“It is rarely remembered now that socialism in its beginnings was frankly authoritarian. It began quite openly as a reaction against the liberalism of the French Revolution. The French writers who laid its foundation had no doubt that their ideas could be put into practice only by a strong dictatorial government. The first of modern planners, Saint-Simon, predicted that those who did not obey his proposed planning boards would be 'treated as cattle'.”

FirstsIdeasGovernmentWould BeStrongPracticeDoubtModernRevolutionFoundationSaintPlanningReactionsSocialismTreatedRememberedBoardsNo DoubtLiberalismCattleFrench RevolutionPlanners
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“The transformations of the French empire itself or of French power structures themselves as well as the emergence of a kind of language of equal rights starting with the American Revolution and the French Revolution provided an opportunity and in some ways connected with other kinds of ground level desires or hopes and ideologies for freedom that were coming out of the plantation regime itself.”

WayWellsKindDesireOpportunityLanguageLevelsRightsRevolutionEqualTransformationStructureStartingConnectedIdeologyEmpiresComing OutRegimesEqual RightsAmerican RevolutionEmergenceFrench RevolutionPlantations
Author:Laurent Dubois
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“The fact is that philosophy has been a decisive source of inspiration in all the great crises that Europe has faced. It has been so in the time that preceded the fall of the Roman Empire, when Augustine of Hippo delineated the features of a new spiritual civilization; in the age of religious wars, when Descartes and Hobbes established the principles of modern science and politics; and at the turn of the French Revolution, interpreted by Kant and Hegel as an event destined to change the history of the world.”

WorldHas BeensWarPhilosophyFactsInspirationAgeSpiritualTurnsFallReligiousPrinciplesModernEventsSourceRevolutionCivilizationEuropeCrisisFeaturesEmpiresDestinedWorld HistoryRoman EmpireModern ScienceFrench RevolutionHegelAugustineHippoHobbesSource Of InspirationReligious Wars
Author:Roberto Esposito
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“In the history and literature courses I took, epistemological questions came to interest me most. What makes one explanation of the French Revolution better than another? What makes one interpretation of "Waiting for Godot" better than another? These questions led me to philosophy and then to philosophy of science.”

PhilosophyCoursesLiteratureWaitingInterestRevolutionExplanationInterpretationPhilosophy Of ScienceFrench RevolutionGodotWaiting For Godot
Author:Elliott Sober
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“The Africans were oftentimes allied with the antagonist of the Republic. Now, you may want to step back and ask yourself why that might be. It may lead you to a reconsideration of the origins of the nation now known as the United States of America. As opposed to seeing it in the same vein as the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, you might see it in the same vein as the revolt against British rule in Rhodesia in 1965, and, if so, that might help to shed light on why conservatism is so deeply entrenched in this republic.”

IfsWantMayStatesHelpingLightMightAmericaAsksNationsUnitedKnownStepsUnited StatesSeeingRevolutionBritishRepublicShedUnited States Of AmericaVeinsConservatismRevoltFrench RevolutionAntagonistHaitianReconsiderationBritish RuleRhodesiaHaitian Revolution
Author:Gerald Horne
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“[John Adams and Tomas Jefferson] shared experience in 1775 - 1776 in bringing about the separation from Britain and their service in Europe cemented a friendship that in the end withstood the most serious political and religious differences that one could imagine, especially their differences over the French Revolution. It was probably Jefferson's obsession with politeness and civility that kept the relationship from becoming irreparably broken.”

EndsPoliticalDifferencesReligiousImagineSeriousBrokenRevolutionBecomingEuropeSeparationObsessionBritainCivilityPolitenessFrench RevolutionShared ExperiencesTomas JeffersonReligious Differences
Author:Gordon S. Wood
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“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

WarBusinessMistakeEnemyMilitaryHuman NatureHumorousStrategyWittyMaking MistakesSarcasmMartial ArtsInsightfulFunny InspirationalCommandersLearning From MistakesMade A MistakeMy MistakesFrench RevolutionStrategistI Make MistakesInspirational MilitaryLearn From Your MistakesWe All Make MistakesFunny BusinessMilitary PowerI Have Made MistakesI Made A MistakeMartial Arts InspirationalLife MistakesWe Make MistakesInterruptingGreat MilitaryMilitary LeaderMaking Mistakes And Learning From ThemGreatest MilitaryHistorical MilitaryMilitary IntelligenceForgive Your EnemiesMistakes Were MadeEnemy WithinMilitary GeneralFrench ArmyMilitary Weapons
Author:Napoleon Bonaparte
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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”

LightAgeBeliefLanguageCitiesDarknessSocietyWorstCommunicationDespairSpringSeasonsWinterFoolishnessEpochFrench RevolutionAntithesisClassic LiteratureGreat LiteratureIncredulityWorst TimesAge And WisdomTale Of Two CitiesBest LiteratureGreat LiteraryParallelism
Author:Charles Dickens
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“It is a sad hardship and slavery to people who live in towns, that in their movements they know of one dimension only; they walk along the line as if they were led on a string. The transition from the line to the plane into the two dimensions, when you wander across a field or through a wood, is a splendid liberation to the slaves, like the French Revolution. But in the air you are taken into the full freedom of the three dimensions; after long ages of exile and dreams the homesick heart throws itself into the arms of space.”

PeopleIfsKnowsHeartLongTwoDreamAgeThreeLinesSpaceWalksTakenAirMovementFieldsRevolutionArmsTownsSlaverySlaveWoodsWanderLiberationPlanesDimensionsStringsHardshipTransitionExileSplendidFrench RevolutionHomesickThree Dimensions
Book:Out of Africa
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“From the days of Spartacus, Weishophf, Karl Marx, Trotski, Belacoon, Rosa Luxenburg, and Ema Goldman, this world conspiracy has been steadily growing. This conspiracy played a definite recognizable role in the tragedy of the French revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the 19th Century. And now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have gripped the Russian people by the hair of their head and have become the undisputed masters of that enormous empire.”

PeopleWorldHas BeensLastsAmericaOrderCitiesRolesGrowingCenturyMovementThis WorldMastersHairRevolutionPersonalityBandEuropeTragedyExtraordinaryEnormousTyrannyCommunismEmpiresNew WorldConspiracyDefinite19th CenturyNew World OrderWorld OrderSubversiveConspiracy TheoryFrench RevolutionGreat CitiesWorld GovernmentUnderworldNwoSecret SocietyRosaAgenda 21UndisputedEurope And AmericaSpartacus
Author:Winston Churchill
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