Farsighted precautions are needed to make liberty’s destiny depend on the truth, which is eternal, more than on men, who are ephemeral, so that if the government forgets the people’s interests or if it falls back into the hands of corrupt men, in accordance with the natural course of things, the light of recognized principles will make clear its betrayals, and so that every new faction will meet death in the mere thought of crime.

Robespierre