Georges Couthon famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

  • History is not a catalogue but...a convincing version of events.

  • Notwithstanding anything to the contrary, in no event may my image or name or any music or any artistic property created by me be used for advertising purposes

  • We must point out that in what concerns its material the event is not a miracle. What I mean is that what composes an event is always extracted from a situation, always related back to a singular multiplicity, to its state, to the language that is connected to it, etc. In fact, so as not to succumb to an obscurantist theory of creation ex nihilo, we must accept that an event is nothing but a part of a given situation, nothing but a fragment of being.

  • There is within each of us a modulation, an inner exaltation, which lifts us above the buffetings with which events assail us. Likewise, it lifts us above dependence upon the gifts of events for our joy.

  • After the French Revolution, it was not the treason of the king that was in question; it was the existence of the king. You have to be very careful when you judge and execute somebody for being a symbol.

  • You can kill a revolutionary, but you cannot kill a revolution.

  • The French Revolution gave birth to no artists but only to a great journalist, Desmoulins, and to an under-the-counter writer, Sade. The only poet of the times was the guillotine.

  • All revolutions are impossible until they happen. Then they become inevitable

  • Give me time and I'll give you a revolution.

  • I trust we shall never be reduced to the painful extremity of seeking the aid of Mirabeau.