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Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
6 quotes
“I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I reflect, and out of all of this I try to form an idea into which I put as much common sense as I can. I shall not speak much for fear of saying foolish things; I will risk still less for fear of doing them, for I am not disposed to abuse the confidence which they have deigned to show me. Such is the conduct which until now I have followed and will follow.”
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) first seen 1776 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to his father-in-law, the Duc d'Ayan (4 December 1776), as quoted in George Washington's Generals and Opponents: Their Exploits and Leadership (1994) by George Athan Billias, p. 219
“Humanity has gained its suit; Liberty will nevermore be without an asylum.”
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) first seen 1780 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to friends (1780), published in Memoirs de La Fayette Vol. II, p. 50, quoted in Martin's History of France : The Decline of the French Monarchy (1866) by Henri Martin, Vol. II, p. 418
“Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights.”
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) first seen 1789 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789)
“True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate, just as national sovereignty is above the secondary agreements of the government.”
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) first seen 1834 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech (3 January 1834), quoted in Lafayette in Two Worlds: Public Cultures and Personal Identities in an Age of Revolutions (1999), p. 256
“I would never have drawn my sword in the cause of America, if I could have conceived that thereby I was founding a land of slavery.”
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in a letter by Thomas Clarkson (3 October 1845), published in The Liberty Bell (1846), p. 64
“An irresistible passion that would induce me to believe in innate ideas, and the truth of prophecy, has decided my career. I have always loved liberty with the enthusiasm which actuates the religious man with the passion of a lover, and with the conviction of a geometrician. On leaving college, where nothing had displeased me more than a state of dependance, I viewed the greatness and the littleness of the court with contempt, the frivolities of society with pity, the minute pedantry of the army with disgust, and oppression of every sort with indignation. The attraction of the American revolution transported me suddenly to my place. I felt myself tranquil only when sailing between the continent whose powers I had braved, and that where, although our arrival and our ultimate success were problematical, I could, at the age of nineteen, take refuge in the alternative of conquering or perishing in the cause to which I had devoted myself.”
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (1757–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to the Bailli de Ploën, as quoted in Recollections of the Private Life of General Lafayette (1835) by Jules Germain Cloquet, Vol. I, p. 24