Gérard Depardieu credited as playing...
Danton
- Danton: I don't want power. I'm 35 and look 60. I'm tired. I'd like to quit. But first I must end the terror, because I'm partly to blame for it.
- Danton: What do you want?
- Philippeaux: The Public Safety Committee has exceeded its mandate. Dismantle it without a fight. Only you can do that. Frankly, you disgust me, but I'll back you.
- Danton: I'm flattered.
- Robespierre: We fought a revolution in the name of fairness and equality.
- Danton: Now you chop off any head above the rest.
- Danton: People just want to eat and sleep in peace. Without bread, there's no law, no freedom, no justice, no Republic.
- Danton: Why must I be killed? Only I can answer that. They must kill me because I'm honest. Because I tell the truth. Because I frighten them. Three reasons to murder a decent man!
- Danton: I am accused of conspiracy. Very well. I confess. I am guilty of conspiracy. In my heart, in my own company, I have conspired. Conspired for peace, amnesty, respect for the law, public order. Conspired for happiness and justice. These faults - yes, yes - because apparently that's what they are - I admit to with pride. But I admit only to them.
- Danton: Another fault: being popular and strong, when only anonymity and cunning guarantee one a long life. If you desire a long life, you must not be loved. That's one of our new laws, all the more powerful for being unwritten. Woe to strong men loved by the people!
- Danton: The Revolution is like Saturn: It devours its own children. Why must we - What fate propels us to condemn rather than forgive? Destroy rather than save? Why all this bloodshed? When, if ever, will it stop?
- Danton: I thought I could put a brake to this storm of Revolution. I thought it advisable and I still do. But in the cold eyes, I have already read my death. You decided that before entering this room. I wonder: Was I wrong? Other men disagree with me. Their idealism knows no bounds. They no longer see men around them but only speculators, villains and traitors. In the name of revolutionary principles, they have forgotten the Revolution! They've established a new dictatorship worse than the old. Fearing the return of tyrants, they've become tyrants themselves!
- Danton: I speak and I'll go on speaking. Perhaps the air in this very hall will preserve the echo of my silenced voice.
- Danton: The same men mustn't stay in power too long.
- Robespierre: You aspire to power?
- Danton: I don't need to aspire to power. I have it. The only real power: from the man in the street. Because I understand him and he understands me. Never forget that.
- Robespierre: I won't. But likewise don't you forget that I'll stop at nothing to bring happiness to the people.
- Danton: Bring happiness to the people? You know nothing of the people! How could you know? Look at you. You don't drink, you in your powdered wigs! Swords make you faint, and they say you've never had a woman. Who do you speak for? Make men happy? You're not even a man yourself.
- Danton: No one must divide us, you and I. No committee, no government, no one. Divided, we both fall. I can't go along with your reign of terror and no one else will either. The people, our strength, will destroy the Revolution.
- Danton: If we're not to blame, then it's fate.
- Robespierre: I've never believed in fate.
- Danton: Nor have I.