Louis Antoine de Saint-Just Quotes

Insurrection is the exclusive right of the people and of the citizen. Every foreigner, every man clothed with public authority, is outlawed if he proposes it and must be put to death as a usurper of sovereignty and as interested in fomenting troubles for the purpose of doing evil or of adorning himself. Insurrections taking place under a despotism are always salutary. Those which break out in a free state are sometimes dangerous for liberty itself, because the revolt usurps its sublime pretexts and its sacred name. Revolts in free states leave long and painful wounds which bleed a whole century.

When a people, having become free, establish wise laws, their revolution is complete.

Most arts have produced miracles, while the art of government has produced nothing but monsters.

In every Revolution a dictator is needed to save the state by force, or censors to save it by virtue.

It has always seemed to me that the social order was implicit in the very nature of things, and required nothing more from the human spirit than care in arranging the various elements; that a people could be governed without being made thralls or libertines or victims thereby; that man was born for peace and liberty, and became miserable and cruel only through the action of insidious and oppressive laws. And I believe therefore that if man be given laws which harmonize with the dictates of nature and of his heart he will cease to be unhappy and corrupt.

One cannot reign innocently: the insanity of doing so is evident. Every king is a rebel and a usurper.

Je méprise la poussière qui me compose et qui vous parle ; on pourra la persécuter et faire mourir cette poussière ! mais je défie que l’on m’arrache cette vie indépendante que je me suis donnée dans les siècles et dans les cieux...

(Autumn 1792) [Source: Oeuvres Complètes de Saint-Just, vol. 1 (2 vols., Paris, 1908), p. 419]

The French people recognize the Supreme Being and the immortality of the soul. The first day of every month is to be dedicated to the eternal.

Let Revolutionists be Romans, not Tatars.

Tous les arts ont produit des merveilles: l'art de gouverner n'a produit que des monstres.

Those who make revolutions by halves do nothing but dig their own tombs.

It is time that we labored for the happiness of the people. Legislators who are to bring light and order into the world must pursue their course with inexorable tread, fearless and unswerving as the sun.

On ne peut point régner innocemment : la folie en est trop évidente. Tout roi est un rebelle et un usurpateur.

Osez! — ce mot renferme toute la politique de notre révolution.