A Very Christian Obstinacy

“The answer Robespierre always gave—when they told him that someone had thought or wanted something or said something else—was: la mort! Its uniformity was extremely tedious, but it suits everything. You want the jacket: here it is; you want the vest too: it’s here; you give a slap: here’s the other cheek; you want the little finger; cut it off. I can kill anything, abstract from anything. Obstinacy is thus invincible and in itself can overcome anything. But the supreme thing to overcome would be precisely this freedom, this very death.”

— G.W.F. Hegel, Aphorismen aus dem Wastebook