Maximilien Robespierre (1794, speech): '"If the basis of popular government in peacetime is a virtue, the basis of popular government during a revolution is both virtue and terror; virtue, without which terror is baneful (destructive); terror, without which virtue is powerless. Terror is nothing more than speedy, severe and inflexible justice; it is thus an emanation of virtue; it is less a principle in itself, than a consequence of the general principle of democracy, applied to the most pressing needs of the patrie [homeland, fatherland]."'