Georges Danton

Georges Jacques Danton was a leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution and the first President of the Committee of Public Safety. A moderating influence on the Jacobins, he was guillotined by the advocates of revolutionary terror after accusations of venality and leniency to the enemies of the Revolution.

Sourced

• Il est satisfaisant, pour les ministres du peuple libre, d'avoir à lui annoncer que la patrie va être sauvée. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/8dscs10.txt
  • It is gratifying to the ministers of a free people to have to announce to them that their country will be saved.
  • Speech, Assemblée legislative, Paris (1792-09-02), reported in Le Moniteur (1792-09-04) http://www.bartleby.com/268/7/20.html

• Il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace! http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/8dscs10.txt
  • We must dare, dare again, always dare!
  • Speech, Assemblée legislative, Paris (1792-09-02), reported in Le Moniteur (1792-09-04)

• Après le pain, l'éducation est le premier besoin du peuple. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/8dscs10.txt
  • After bread, education is the first need of the people.
  • Speech, Assemblée législative, Paris (1793-08-13), reported in Le Moniteur (1793-08-15)

Unsourced

• Show my head to the people, it is worth seeing.
  • Last words, spoken to the executioner, before dying upon the guillotine

• Qui hait les vices, hait les hommes
  • He who hates vices hates mankind.

• We don't want the King condemned...we want him dead.

• Those strong walls overhead blind and stifle me. When shall we see them pulled down? I would wield a pick with a will if the chance came.
  • referring to the Bastille in 1780

• On n'emporte pas la patrie à la semelle de ses souliers.
  • You can't take your country with you on the sole of your shoes. (Refusing to flee in the face of trial.)

• Has my face a free man’s look? Am I no more the companion of your dangers, the friend you have embraced, your sworn ally till death? Have I not been the mark of persecution without end? You will be amazed when I prove to you that the huge fortune fabricated for me by men who are your enemies as much as mine is in reality the modest property I have always possessed. I challenge the proof of the smallest criminality. Try what anyone may, it will be in vain. The people shall see no shuffling on my part. You shall judge me in its presence. I will no more tear out a page of my history than you will the pages of yours, which are destined to immortalize the annals of freedom.
  • outburst at the Jacobin Club in 1793