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Talking to Robespierre, one tried to make the right noises; but what is right, these days? Address yourself to the militant, and you find a pacifist giving you a reproachful look. Address yourself to the idealist, and you__l find that you__e fallen into the company of a cheerful, breezy professional politician. Address yourself to means, and you__l be told to think of ends: to ends, and you__l be told to think of means. Make an assumption, and you will find it overturned; offer yesterday__ conviction, and today you__l find it shredded. What did Mirabeau complain of? He believes everything he says. Presumably there was some layer of Robespierre, some deep stratum, where all the contradictions were resolved.
Hilary Mantel A Place of Greater Safety
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Talking to Robespierre, one tried to make the right noises; but what is right, these days? Address yourself to the militant, and you find a pacifist giving you a reproachful look. Address yourself to the idealist, and you__l find that you__e fallen into the company of a cheerful, breezy professional politician. Address yourself to means, and you__l be told to think of ends: to ends, and you__l be told to think of means. Make an assumption, and you will find it overturned; offer yesterday__ conviction, and today you__l find it shredded. What did Mirabeau complain of? He believes everything he says. Presumably there was some layer of Robespierre, some deep stratum, where all the contradictions were resolved.
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Hilary Mantel

A Place of Greater Safety

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