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Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette Quotes (1757-1834)
About Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (6 September 1757 β 20 May 1834), often referred to simply as Lafayette, was a French and American military officer and aristocrat who participated in the American Revolution as a general and served in the Estates General and the subsequent National Constituent Assembly in the early phases of the French Revolution.
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β'''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.β
βTrue 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.β
βI 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.β
βAn 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.β
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Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette on Liberty 2 quotes
βHumanity has gained its suit; Liberty will nevermore be without an asylum.β
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette on American Revolution
βThe unfortunate soldiers were in want of everything; they had neither coats, nor hats, nor shirts, nor shoes; their feet and their legs froze till they grew black and it was often necessary to amputate them.... The army frequently passed whole days without food.β
Quotes About Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
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John Quincy Adamsβ on Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette 3 quotes
βPronounce him one of the first men of his age, and you have yet not done him justice. Try him by that test to which he sought in vain to stimulate the vulgar and selfish spirit of Napoleon; class him among the men who, to compare and seat themselves, must take in the compass of all ages; turn back your eyes upon the records of time; summon from the creation of the world to this day the mighty dead of every age and every clime β and where, among the race of merely mortal men, shall one be found, who, as the benefactor of his kind, shall claim to take precedence of Lafayette?β
George Athan Billias on Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
βLafayette avoided the factions jealous of Washington because he recognized that Washington was the Revolution and that should he be reduced in power or replaced, the whole cause would collapse. β¦ Washington was a shrewd judge of character and never would have warmed to Lafayette if he had been only a superficial ingratiating romantic. Lafayette scrupulously looked after his men, spending his own money when Congress failed to provide them necessities. Nor was he backward in suggesting to Washington certain changes and innovations from French military practice.β
Jules Germain Cloquet on Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette 2 quotes
βAmbition, as that passion is generally understood,β a strong desire to rise above others, to occupy the first place, β formed no part of Lafayette's character. In him the passion was nothing more than a constant and irresistible wish to do good.β
Baron on Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
βNo one deserves more than he the esteem which he enjoys here. He is a prodigy for his age, full of courage, spirit, judgment, good manners, feelings of generosity and of zeal for the cause of liberty on this continent.β
Richard Norton Smith on Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
βLafayette is a young man of royal birth, with liberal politics and what Jefferson later called "a canine appetite for fame." Someone said he was "a statue in search of a pedestal." But he was intoxicated with, [had] a rather theoretical love of, liberty. It was theoretical because liberty wasn't known to many Europeans. [Lafayette] was a great romantic and he fell in love with America, the concept of America that the French had. This wild new world where you could start the world over, to use Tom Paine's phrase.β
Disputed Quotes
Quotes attributed to Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette that are questionable.
βIf the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the Romish clergy.β
About Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette (6 September 1757 β 20 May 1834), often referred to simply as Lafayette, was a French and American military officer and aristocrat who participated in the American Revolution as a general and served in the Estates General and the subsequent National Constituent Assembly in the early phases of the French Revolution.