Danton (1983)

Wojciech Pszoniak: Robespierre

Photos 

Quotes 

• Robespierre : For the country's good we must be ruthless. We can't afford to be just. We'd have to rule by terror. You know what that is? Terror is nothing but despair.

• Robespierre : Only the guilty tremble.

• Robespierre : The eyes of the world are upon us every day. We must show no weakness, no moral cowardice. What would become of France if we lost the trust of the French?

• Robespierre : We fought a revolution in the name of fairness and equality.

  Danton : Now you chop off any head above the rest.

• Danton : The same men mustn't stay in power too long.

  Robespierre : You aspire to power?

  Danton : I don't need to aspire to power. I have it. The only real power: from the man in the street. Because I understand him and he understands me. Never forget that.

  Robespierre : I won't. But likewise don't you forget that I'll stop at nothing to bring happiness to the people.

  Danton : Bring happiness to the people? You know nothing of the people! How could you know? Look at you. You don't drink, you in your powdered wigs! Swords make you faint, and they say you've never had a woman. Who do you speak for? Make men happy? You're not even a man yourself.

• Danton : Wait! My witnesses heard everything.

  Robespierre : That's why I said nothing.

• Robespierre : Fouquier, if we back off, we're all sunk.

  Fouquier-Tinville : I'm a judge. I'm not your private executioner.

  Robespierre : You are an executioner! Not mine - the people's! You serve justice! We send you the Republic's enemies! Your duty is not to judge them but to destroy them!

• Robespierre : You admit a dictatorship is needed. That means the nation is unable to govern itself and democracy is only an illusion.

• Robespierre : For revolutionaries, danger must never outweigh duty.

• Robespierre : What does humiliation matter if it's for the country's good?

• Danton : If we're not to blame, then it's fate.

  Robespierre : I've never believed in fate.

  Danton : Nor have I.

• Fouquier-Tinville : You no longer have law on your side.

  Robespierre : When the Republic is at stake, we have every right. Never forget that. Say another word and you'll be arrested.

• Robespierre : I feel that everything I've lived for has collapsed forever.