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Maximilien Robespierre, a leading figure of the French Revolution and the dominant voice on the Committee of Public Safety, cemented his historical notoriety through his chilling synthesis of terror and moral righteousness. In his pivotal 1794 address, On Political Morality, he argued that while the foundation of a peacetime democratic government is virtue-defined as a selfless devotion to the public good-the survival of a revolutionary republic requires both virtue and terror. To Robespierre, terror was not a tool of senseless cruelty or tyrannical despotism, but rather "prompt, severe, inflexible justice" wielded to cleanse the nation of traitors. He famously declared that "terror without virtue is murderous, virtue without terror is powerless," believing that violence was an unfortunate but necessary surgical measure to protect the sovereignty of the people and secure the revolution.
