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

— Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

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Notes from Wikiquote

Discours sur la Constitution à donner à la France, speech to the National Convention (April 24, 1793).

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Government

More quotes by Louis Antoine de Saint-Just

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

Fragment 13 (1794)

Every political edict which is not based upon nature is wrong.

Nothing so nearly resembles virtue as a great crime.

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

You who make the laws, the vices and the virtues of the people will be your work.

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There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Louis Antoine de Saint-Just (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.