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Guillotine Quotes

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Guillotine Quotes

“March 20th. It is done. He was guillotined this morning. He made a good end, very good. It gave me infinite pleasure. How sweet it is to see a man's head cut off! The blood spurted out like a wave, like a wave. Oh, if I could, I would have liked to have bathed in it! What intoxicating ecstasy to crouch below it, to receive it in my hair and on my face, and rise up all crimson, all crimson! Ah, if people knew!”

BloodMurderGuillotineA Madman
Book:88 More Stories
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“The last French Bourbon to reign, Charles X, brother of the guillotined Louis XVI and of his brief successor, Louis XVIII, displayed a recurring type of folly best described as the Humpty-Dumpty type: that is to say, the effort to reinstate a fallen and shattered structure, turning back history. In the process, called reaction or counter-revolution, the reactionary right is bent on restoring the privileges and property of the old regime and somehow retrieving a strength it did not have before.”

HistoryFollyConservatismGuillotineHumpty DumptyReactionaryCounter RevolutionCharles XAhistorical Triumphalism
Book:The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam
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“Sometimes a revolution turns into an actual government, or at the very least an actual way of life that contrasts with days past like blood on snow. Such was the case in France, where even as the guillotine released a steady river of gore, Royalist insurrections were suppressed by what had become a sophisticated military. In Toulon, the Royalist insurrection in 1793 led to an actual siege by republicans, spearheaded by none other than Napoleon Bonaparte. The Royalists in Toulon, supported by the British and Spanish, were feared by the republicans as an existential threat to every hope and promise of the revolution. For months there were bombardments, cannon fire that made the windows in the prison tremble.”

GovernmentRevolutionPrisonFranceGuillotineNapoleonLes MiserablesJavertRoyalistsToulon
Book:Wolves and Urchins: The Early Life of Inspector Javert
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“How does newness come into the world? How is it born? Of what fusions, translations, conjoinings is it made? How does it survive, extreme and dangerous as it is? What compromises, what deals, what betrayals of its secret nature must it make to stave off the wrecking crew, the exterminating angel, the guillotine? Is birth always a fall? Do angels have wings? Can men fly?”

MenWorldDoeMadeFallBornDealsSecretDangerousBirthAngelWingsExtremesBetrayalCompromiseCrewTranslationsFusionNewnessGuillotine
Book:The Satanic Verses
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“The reason the lawyers lead the line to the guillotine or the firing squad is that, while law is supposed to be a device to serve society, a civilized way of helping the wheels go round without too much friction, it is pretty hard to find a group less concerned with serving society and more concerned with serving themselves than the lawyers.”

WayHardReasonHelpingLawLinesToo MuchGroupsConcernedRoundsLawyerSupposed To BeWheelsDevicesServingCivilizedFiringFrictionSquadGuillotine
Author:Fred Rodell
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“The humanitarian wishes to be a prime mover in the lives of others. He cannot admit either the divine or the natural order, by which men have the power to help themselves. The humanitarian puts himself in the place of God. But he is confronted by two awkward facts; first, that the competent do not need his assistance; and second, that the majority of people positively do not want to be "done good" by the humanitarian. Of course, what the humanitarian actually proposes is that he shall do what he thinks is good for everybody. It is at this point that the humanitarian sets up the guillotine.”

PeopleThinkingMenWantNeedsFirstsTwoDoneFactsHelpingOrderCoursesWishNaturalDivineMajorityHumanitarianPrimeAwkwardAssistancePositivelyProposeCompetentLives Of OthersNatural OrderGuillotine
Author:Isabel Paterson
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“Along the Paris streets, the death-carts rumble, hollow and harsh. Six tumbrils carry the day's wine to La Guillotine.”

StreetsSixWineParisHarshHollowCartsRumbleGuillotineTale Of Two Cities
Book:Charles Dickens's works. Charles Dickens ed. [18 vols. of a 21 vol. set. Wanting A child's history of England; Christmas stories; The mystery of Edwin Drood].
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“What havoc has been made of books through every century of the Christian era? Where are fifty gospels, condemned as spurious by the bull of Pope Gelasius? Where are the forty wagon-loads of Hebrew manuscripts burned in France, by order of another pope, because suspected of heresy? Remember the 'index expurgatorius', the inquisition, the stake, the axe, the halter and the guillotine.”

Has BeensMadeBookChristianRememberReligionOrderAtheismCenturyFranceErasFiftyFortyStakesLoadBurnedPopeBullsChurch And StateHeresyHebrewManuscriptsAtheisticFounding Fathers ChristianWagonsFounding Fathers ReligionInquisitionReligion GodFounding Fathers Anti ReligionHavocFounding Fathers AtheistChristianity From Founding FathersGuillotine
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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“Then, as she turned to walk away, Fred dropped the guillotine."So we're making Ev CEO," he said, his fork clenched in his hand. "You're going to get a passive chairman role and a silent board seat. We have some paperwork for you and a recommendation for a lawyer."Jack felt like he had just been hit in the face with a baseball bat. "Say that again," he stuttered to Fred, thinking he had heard incorrectly.Fred repeated himself almost verbatim: We're making Ev CEO. You're getting a passive chairman role. You will have a silent board seat. Here's the paperwork. Call a lawyer.”

ThinkingSaidHandsFacesFeltWalksRolesHeardBaseballSilentLawyerBoardsSeatsPassiveBatsCeoChairmanForksRecommendationsPaperworkGuillotine
Author:Nick Bilton
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“Above all, one hideous figure grew as familiar as if it had been before the general gaze from the foundations of the world - the figure of the sharp female called La Guillotine. It was the popular theme for jests; it was the best cure for headache, it infallibly prevented hair from turning gray, it imparted a peculiar delicacy to the complexion, it was the National Razor which shaved close: who kissed La Guillotine looked through the little window and sneezed into the sack.”

IfsWorldLittlesFiguresHairGrewFemaleWindowFoundationFamiliarCuresThemeGrayPeculiarHideousHeadacheRazorsDelicacyComplexionGuillotine
Book:A Tale of Two Cities: A Story of the French Revolution
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“When that happens [the demise of golf], old men will furtively beckon to their sons and, like fugitives from the guillotine recalling the elegant orgies at the court of Louis XV, will recite the glories of Portmarnock and Merion, of the Road Hole at St. Andrews, the sixth at Seminole, the eighteenth at Pebble Beach. They will take out this volume from its secret hiding place and they will say: "There is no question, son, that these were unholy places in an evil age. Unfortunately, I had a whale of a time."”

MenHappensAgeEvilSecretSonGloryCourtGolfHolesBeachOld ManHidingVolumeElegantWhalesAndrewDemisePebblesHiding PlaceGuillotinePebble Beach
Author:Alistair Cooke
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