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About this quote

What does it mean?
By committing our lives (blood) to a cause, we may eventually achieve universal happiness, implying sacrifice leads to collective joy.
In plain terms
Sacrificing for a cause may bring widespread happiness.
What can you take from it?
Consider the long‑term benefits of personal sacrifice.

Where it applies

  • movement building
  • ethical debates on sacrifice

Putting it to work

  • align personal goals with larger vision
  • evaluate cost‑benefit of sacrifice

Questions to consider

  • When is sacrifice justified?
  • What defines true universal happiness?

Another view

Sacrifice can be exploited for propaganda.

More from Maximilien Robespierre

  1. The government in a revolution is the despotism of liberty against tyranny.

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  2. We must smother the internal and external enemies of the Republic or perish with it; now in this situation, the first maxim of your policy ought to be to lead …

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  3. Terror is nothing other than justice, prompt, severe, inflexible; it is therefore an emanation of virtue; it is not so much a special principle as it is a cons…

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