François-Noël Babeuf Quotes

22 Sourced Quotes

We must advance... because Christianity and Freedom are incompatible

François-Noël Babeuf
I confess today in good faith that I am angry with myself for having formerly seen in a bad light, within the revolutionary government, Robespierre and Saint-Just. I believe that these two men were better on their own than all the revolutionaries together.

François-Noël Babeuf
Nature having given no property to anyone.

François-Noël Babeuf
Property is odious in its principle and murderous in its effects.

François-Noël Babeuf
I vow to call a priest, in other words, charlatans, impostors, all those whom I shall see deviate from the line of the rights of men.

François-Noël Babeuf
Education is a monstrosity when it is unequal, when it is the exclusive patrimony of one class of the society; because education then becomes the controlling hand of this class, a mass of mechanisms, a provision of weapons of all kinds, by which the ruling class combats the other class, which is disarmed.

François-Noël Babeuf
We shall distinguish in Robespierre two men, apostle of liberty, and Robespierre the most infamous of tyrants.

François-Noël Babeuf
The pretended superiority of man over woman, and the despotic authority which he arrogates to himself, have the same origin as the domination of the nobility.

François-Noël Babeuf
Feudalism is but a system of Slaves and Tyrants; my country, desiring to be free, can no longer preserve anything in this system.

François-Noël Babeuf
It is the system of great landed estates which invented and sustains the trafficking of whites and blacks who sell and buy men.... It is this system which in the colonies gives the blacks of our plantations only a blow with a whip and a morsel of bread.

François-Noël Babeuf
If the people are sovereign, they must themselves exercise as much as they can of the sovereignty.

François-Noël Babeuf
We aim at something more sublime and more equitable—the common good, or the community of goods.... We demand, we would have, the communal enjoyment of the fruits of the earth, fruits which are for everyone.

François-Noël Babeuf
No one can by monopolization deprive others of the instruction necessary for their happiness; the instruction must be communal.

François-Noël Babeuf
It was in the dust of the seigneurial archives that I discovered the frightful mysteries of the usurpations of the noble caste.

François-Noël Babeuf
Of prejudices:
Children of ignorance, who have at all times made the misfortunes of the human races.

François-Noël Babeuf
Nor does it impose silence on this sex which does not deserve to be despised.

François-Noël Babeuf
There has never been anything great in the world except through the courage and resolve of one man who defies the prejudices of the multitude.

François-Noël Babeuf
Admitting inequality means subscribing to a depravity of the species.

François-Noël Babeuf
The knowledge of feudal practices is the reason why I was perhaps the most formidable scourge of feudalism.

François-Noël Babeuf
The opinion which you give us the contribution which can be derived from women is sensible and judicious. We will benefit. We all know the influence which this interesting sex can possess, which cannot bear more indifferently than we the yoke of tyranny. And which is endowed with less courage, when it is a question of contriving to break it.

François-Noël Babeuf
The true citizen prefers the general advantage to his advantage.

François-Noël Babeuf
Let the revolting distinction of rich and poor disappear once and for all, the distinction of great and small, of masters and valets, of governors and governed. Let there be no other difference between human beings than those of age and sex. Since all have the same needs and the same faculties, let there be one education for all, one food for all.

François-Noël Babeuf