revolution_fr | Quote Challenge -- bonus round (Reply)

Ok, so my quote challenge didn't meet "official criteria," because I couldn't find all of my quotes in French (lacking access to a research library). However, some of you might still find it fun.

The following quotes were written about / to Robespierre by his friends and colleagues. I think it's fascinating to see how the people who actually knew him saw him. See if you can match the quotes with their authors. Trust me, there is no point in trying Google for most of these. You could scour books, but you might do just as well taking some educated guesses. I have a cool engraving of a scene from 9 Thermidor to email to the winner. :)

Barere

Billaud-Varenne

Collot d’Herbois

Danton

Desmoulins

Freron

Marat

Merlin de Thionville

Mirabeau

Petion

Mme. Roland

Saint-Just

Vadier

1. Any people jealous of its liberty must be on its guard against the very virtues of the men who occupy the highest positions. (…) The crafty Pericles employed popular colors to hide the chains which he was forging for the Athenians. For a long time he led people to believe that he never mounted the tribune without reminding himself that he was speaking to free men. And this same Pericles, having succeeded in obtaining the most absolute authority, became the most bloodthirsty despot.

2. It is perhaps to his change of lodgings, that one ought to attribute the growth of Robespierre's ambition. As long as he stayed at Humbert's he was accessible to patriots, and to his friends. But once he had gone to live at the Duplays he became gradually invisible. They shut him out from society, they worshipped him, they intoxicated him, and they exalted his pride to the point of perdition.

3. It may be of some interest to you, Sir, to receive in the heart of the capital, the center of so many passions where your patriotism shines like a lighted beacon, a letter dispatched from deep in the desert, written by the hand of one not committed to any faction and who is prompted to write to you by that sentiment of pleasure and esteem that men and women of honor experience in communicating with one another. Even if I had only followed the course of the Revolution and the work of the Legislature in the public press, I should have been able to distinguish the small number of courageous men who have remained faithful to their principles, and among these the man whose energy has never flagged in his unremitting opposition to the pretensions and maneuvers of the despots and intriguers; and to these representatives my attachment and my gratitude would have been due as would those of every lover of humanity to its generous defenders.

4. This interview confirmed the opinion that I had always held of him: that he combined the intelligence of the wise legislator with the integrity of the man of honor and the zeal of the true patriot; but that he lacked both the vision and the audacity of the statesman.

5. People who like to establish relationships between faces and moral qualities and to discover likenesses between human beings and animals have observed that Danton had the face of a mastiff, Marat that of an eagle, Mirabeau of a lion and Robespierre of a cat. But the type of cat that his face resembled change as time went by: at first it bore the anxious but gentle appearance of the domestic cat, then the savage look of the wild cat, and finally the ferocious aspect of the tiger cat.

6. That man will go far, he believes everything he says.

7. Do not forget Robespierre! He was a man of purity and integrity, a true Republican. It was his vanity, his irascible sensibility, and his unjust suspicions of his colleagues that were the cause of his downfall.

8. There is a righteousness about your letter, and a senatorial weightiness, that hurts me (…). You are proud, and you have a right to be, to wear the toga of the National Assembly. I like this noble conceit, and I am only sorry that all the deputies are not as conscious of their dignity as you are. (…) Surely you are not one of those wretched creatures described by J.J. Rousseau who hate to have their thoughts revealed, and who only say what they really think in the presence of their butler or their valet but never before the National Assembly or in the Tuileries gardens. (I have this one in French.)

9. He says: ‘so and so conspires against me; I am the friend par excellence of the Republic; therefore he conspires against the Republic’. This logic is new.”

10. You who sustain the vacillating country against the torrent of despotism and intrigue, you whom I know as I know God, by your miracles, I address myself to you, monsieur, to beg you to join with me in saving my poor region. I don’t know you, but you are a great man. You are not merely the deputy of a province, you are the representative of humanity and of the republic. (I have this one in French.)

11. This member of the Constituent Assembly, rightly called ‘The Incorruptible,’ should preside over the society.

12. You know, my friend, what my feelings are toward you: you know that I am no rival of yours and that I have always given you proof of my devoted friendship. It would be idle to attempt to divide us. I could not cease to love you unless you ceased to love liberty. I have always found more fault with you to your face than behind your back. When I think you too ready to take offense or when I believe, rightly or wrongly, that you are mistaken about a line of action, I tell you so. You reproach me with being too trustful. You may be right, but you must not assume too readily that many of my acquaintances are your enemies. People can disagree on a number of unessential points, without becoming enemies, and your heart is said to be just. Besides, it is childish to take offense at the things people say against one.

13. With regard to those who were once my friends, I will tell you this: Marat had a volcanic character, Robespierre I have known as tenacious and firm, but I – I have served in my own way. (…) I would embrace my worst enemy for the sake of the country, and I will give her my body if she needs the sacrifice.