Quotes About Lafayette

#1. As a Frenchman who represented neither North nor South, East nor West, left nor right, Yankees nor Red Sox, Lafayette has always belonged to all of us.

Sarah Vowell

#2. When Lafayette met him in 1775, the first volume of Raynal's 1770 History of the Two Indies had already been banned, which is to say it was a popular success, the Catholic Church's Index of Forbidden Books being the unofficial bestseller list of the day.

Sarah Vowell

#3. Ambition, as that passion is generally understood,- a strong desire to rise above others, to occupy the first place, - formed no part of Lafayette's character. In him the passion was nothing more than a constant and irresistible wish to do good.

Marquis De Lafayette

#4. Till the hour when the trump of the Archangel shall sound to announce that Time shall be no more, the name of Lafayette shall stand enrolled upon the annals of our race, high on the list of the pure and disinterested benefactors of mankind.

Marquis De Lafayette

#5. The elimination of force at all costs is Utopian and the new movement which has arisen in the country and of whose dawn we have given a warning is inspired by the ideals which Guru Gobind Singh and Shivaji, Kamal Pasha and Reza Khan, Washington and Garibaldi, Lafayette and Lenin preached.

Bhagat Singh

#6. When we were shooting in Shreveport, me and a couple of friends went down to Lafayette, because they had a big Zydeco music festival down there. We spent two days dancing to Zydeco music, eating fried alligator ... It was one of the craziest festivals I've ever been to in my life, but I loved it.

Alexander Skarsgard

#7. I'm back at Lafayette Park after a trip to the Bodhi Tree Bookstore, not to look at the books but to rub up against the female bookworms and to catch a buzz on the free herbal tea.

Donald O'Donovan

#8. Fortunately, I had a believable, if utterly frivolous excuse for what we would have been doing out in Lafayette: There's this ice cream company called Jeni's? They're from Ohio?

Mira Grant

#9. Lafayette lifted his glass at one reception to toast 'the perpetual union of the United States,' adding, 'it has always saved us in time of storm; one day it will save the world.'" Whether

Sarah Vowell

#10. Hamilton, aware the war was winding down and that this was likely his last shot at glory, went over Lafayette's head and appealed to Washington, who overruled Lafayette and allowed Hamilton to lead.

Sarah Vowell

#11. I haven't had a stationary home since going with the circus, but since my parents lived in Lafayette about 25 years ago and my sister lives here now, I always claim it as home.

Emmett Kelly

#12. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate. - MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE

Michelle Moran

#13. 158 Lewis Avenue between Lafayette and Van Buren, that was back durin days of hangin' on my bed-stuy block

Big Daddy Kane

#14. Washington had several surrogate sons during the Revolution, most notably the marquis de Lafayette, and he often referred to Hamilton as my boy.

Ron Chernow

#15. Lafayette took umbrage - just gobs and gobs of umbrage - at the patriots' vilification of his countrymen for leaving Newport.

Sarah Vowell

#16. Washington trusted Lafayette, but he trusted no foreign power, even America's ally. The

David A. Clary

#17. Silicon Bayou - aka Lafayette, LA - is the best kept secret reservoir of innovation mojo in America

Todd Park

#18. Lafayette, on the other hand, was more of a make-your-own-destiny type of fellow, disobeying orders from the king and abandoning a pregnant girl for an entirely optional adventure.

Sarah Vowell

#19. For women, history does not exist. Murasaki, Sappho, and Madame Lafayette might be their own contemporaries.

Cesare Pavese

#20. Picpus Cemetery, where Lafayette is buried under dirt from Bunker Hill.

Sarah Vowell

#21. December 29, 1946: Snowing this morning. The year seems to be dying in a light white blanket. Only three more days of this year, then comes a new one. Then, what? No one knows.
Diary of Bertha Kate Gaddis who passed away 6 months later, age 78, West Lafayette, IN.

Angie Klink

#22. I think Lafayette wants to rap in French now. I have to go learn some French.
Damn it, Lafayette

Lin-Manuel Miranda

#23. Lafayette saw himself as the protector of royalty; they [the king and his family] considered him its gaoler.

William Doyle

#24. Laws must be clear, precise, and uniform for all citizens.

Marquis De Lafayette

#25. The Spaniards are slow in their motions but strong in their attachments.

Marquis De Lafayette

#26. I gave my heart to the Americans and thought of nothing else but raising my banner and adding my colors to theirs.

Marquis De Lafayette

#27. I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I think, and out of all that I try to form an idea into which I put as much common sense as I can.

Marquis De Lafayette

#28. I had displeased the jacobins by blaming their aristocratic usurpation of legitimate powers; the priests of all sorts by claiming religious liberty; the anarchists by repressing them; and the conspirators by rejecting their offers.

Marquis De Lafayette

#29. I have found a unique opportunity to distinguish myself and to learn my trade. I am a general officer in the army of the United States of America. My zeal in their cause and my frankness have won their trust.

Marquis De Lafayette

#30. It is foolishly thought by some that democratical constitutions will not, cannot, last; that the States will quarrel with each other; that a king, or at least a nobility, are indispensable for the prosperity of a nation.

Marquis De Lafayette

#31. Humanity has gained its suit; Liberty will nevermore be without an asylum.

Marquis De Lafayette

#32. The Huron and Iroquois forests are peopled by my friends; with me, the despots of Europe and their courts are the savages.

Marquis De Lafayette

#33. From an early period, I had the happiness to rank among the foremost in the American Revolution. In the affection and confidence of the people, I am proud to say, I have a great share.

Marquis De Lafayette

#34. It is the pride of my heart to have been one of the earliest adopted sons of America.

Marquis De Lafayette

#35. It is necessary above all that the citizens, who have rallied round the constitution, should be assured that the rights it guarantees will be respected with such a scrupulous fidelity as will reduce to despair its enemies, hidden or avowed.

Marquis De Lafayette

#36. May the friends of America rejoice! May her enemies be humbled and her censors silenced at the news of her noble exertions in continuance of those principles which have placed her so high in the annals of history and among the nations of the earth.

Marquis De Lafayette

#37. Protestants in France are under intolerable despotism. Although open persecution does not now exist, yet it depends upon the whim of the king, queen, parliament, or any of the ministry.

Marquis De Lafayette

#38. No man can be subject to any laws, excepting those which have received the assent of himself or his representatives and which are promulgated beforehand and applied legally.

Marquis De Lafayette

#39. I became obnoxious to the Jacobins because I reprobated their aristocracy, which aimed at usurping all legitimate authority.

Marquis De Lafayette

#40. Nature has made men free and equal. The distinctions necessary for social order are only founded on general utility.

Marquis De Lafayette

#41. If you were lost for America, there is nobody who could keep the army and the revolution [going] for six months.

Marquis De Lafayette

#42. We still are pestered by two parties: the aristocratic, which is panting for a counter revolution, and the factious, which aims at the division of the empire and destruction of the authority - and perhaps of the lives - of the reigning branch, both of which parties are fomenting troubles.

Marquis De Lafayette

#43. The king knows with what ardor and perseverance I have at all times been devoted to the cause of liberty and to the principles of humanity, equality and justice.

Marquis De Lafayette

#44. The happiness of America is intimately connected with the happiness of all mankind; she is destined to become the safe and venerable asylum of virtue, of honesty, of tolerance, and quality and of peaceful liberty.

Marquis De Lafayette

#45. One time, I was given an essay topic: to describe a perfect horse, whom the mere sight of the rider's whip would make obedient. I depicted this perfect horse throwing his rider at the sight of the whip.

Marquis De Lafayette

#46. May the States be so bound to each other as forever to defy European politics. Upon that union, their consequence, their happiness, will depend. This is the first wish of a heart more truly American than words can express.

Marquis De Lafayette

#47. I can assure the Marquis de Chasteler that it is my unalterable determination never to set foot on any territory which acknowledges obedience to His Majesty the King of Bohemia and Hungary.

Marquis De Lafayette

#48. 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.

Marquis De Lafayette

#49. Charleston is one of the best built, handsomest, and most agreeable cities that I have ever seen.

Marquis De Lafayette

#50. I am astonished but not discouraged by my enormous responsibility. Devoted both from affection and duty to the cause of the people, I shall combat with equal ardor aristocracy, despotism, and faction.

Marquis De Lafayette

#51. The continental troops have as much courage and real discipline as those that are opposed to them. They are more inured to privation, more patient than Europeans, who, on these two points, cannot be compared to them.

Marquis De Lafayette

#52. I shall ask for the abolition for the punishment of death until I have the infallibility of human judgment demonstrated to me.

Marquis De Lafayette

#53. Never was a man further from a partiality for Spain than I am. But I think I now have left them in a sincere and steady intention to cultivate the friendship of America.

Marquis De Lafayette

#54. In my idea General Washington is the greatest man; for I look upon him as the most virtuous.

Marquis De Lafayette

#55. My heart has always been truly convinced that in serving the cause of America, I am fighting for the interests of France.

Marquis De Lafayette

#56. Let not ambition take possession of you; love the friends of the people, but reserve blind submission for the law and enthusiasm for liberty.

Marquis De Lafayette

#57. Whatever may be my feelings of personal gratitude to the Navy of the United States, I feel myself under still greater obligations to them for the honor they have done to the American name in every part of the globe.

Marquis De Lafayette

#58. If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the clergy.

Marquis De Lafayette

#59. I feel happy that twenty-five years of vicissitudes in my fortune, and firmness in my principles, warrant me in repeating here that if, to recover her rights, it is sufficient for a nation to resolve to do so, she can preserve them only by rigid fidelity to her civil and moral duties.

Marquis De Lafayette

#60. I experience for the American officers and soldiers that friendship which arises from having shared with them for a length of time dangers, sufferings, and both good and evil fortune.

Marquis De Lafayette

#61. No person is more convinced than I am of the necessity of giving great splendour and energy to the great hereditary magistracy exercised by the king; but in a free country, there can only be citizens and public officers.

Marquis De Lafayette

#62. In the American colonies, the main problem of liberty has been solved, demonstrated and practiced in such a manner as not to leave much to be said by European institutions.

Marquis De Lafayette

#63. Insurrection is the most sacred of rights and the most indispensable of duties.

Marquis De Lafayette

#64. Defender of the liberty that I idolize, myself more free than anyone, in coming as a friend to offer my services to this intriguing republic, I bring to it only my frankness and my good will; no ambition, no self-interest; in working for my glory, I work for their happiness.

Marquis De Lafayette

#65. The American women are very pretty and have great simplicity of character, and the extreme neatness of their appearance is truly delightful: cleanliness is everywhere even more studiously attended to here than in England.

Marquis De Lafayette

#66. Paris is in a tranquil state; the infernal cabal that besieges me appears guided by foreigners. This idea consoles me, for nothing is so painful as being persecuted by one's own fellow-citizens.

Marquis De Lafayette

#67. Do not let us despair of the cause of liberty: it is still dear to the hearts of Frenchmen, and we shall one day have the felicity of seeing it established in our beloved country.

Marquis De Lafayette

#68. 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.

Marquis De Lafayette

#69. The good fortune of America is closely tied to the good fortune of all humanity.

Marquis De Lafayette

#70. Humanity has won its battle. Liberty now has a country.

Marquis De Lafayette

#71. All the evils of France have been produced less by the perversity of the wicked and the violence of fools than by the hesitation of the weak, the compromises of conscience, and the tardiness of patriotism. Let every deputy, every Frenchman show what he feels, what he thinks, and we are saved!

Marquis De Lafayette

#72. All that you are, all that I owe to you, justifies my love.

Marquis De Lafayette

#73. True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate.

Marquis De Lafayette

#74. The Emperor Napoleon, ascending gradually from his post of national magistrate to seat himself upon a throne without limits, seems to have wished to punish, as for the abuse of republican reforms, by making us feel all the weight of absolute monarchy.

Marquis De Lafayette

#75. My grand affair appears settled, for America is certain of her independence, humanity has gained her cause, and liberty will never be without a place of refuge.

Marquis De Lafayette

#76. In America there are none poor, and none even that can be called peasants. Each citizen has some property, and all citizens have the same rights as the richest individual, or landed proprietor, in the country.

Marquis De Lafayette

#77. The exercise of natural rights has no limits but such as will ensure their enjoyment to other members of society.

Marquis De Lafayette

#78. It was by a Maryland colonel in the year 1777 that the British received, in the gallant defense of an important fort, one of the first lessons of what they were to expect from American valor and patriotism.

Marquis De Lafayette

#79. If the king refuses the constitution, I shall oppose him; if he accepts it, I shall defend him; and the day on which he gave himself up as my prisoner secured me more fully to his service than if he had promised me half his kingdom.

Marquis De Lafayette

#80. May these happy United States attain that complete splendour and prosperity which will illustrate the blessings of their government, and for ages to come rejoice the departed souls of their founders!

Marquis De Lafayette

#81. The more I see, hear, and think in Europe, the more I wish for every measure that can ensure to the United States dignity, power, and public confidence.

Marquis De Lafayette

#82. Nothing hurts so much the interest and reputation of America as to hear of their intestine quarrels.

Marquis De Lafayette

#83. When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of duties.

Marquis De Lafayette

#84. Confucius himself taught that the more laws a society has, the less people will obey them and that societies that depend on laws to control the behavior of their citizens will eventually self-destruct.

Boye Lafayette De Mente