Word: etat
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...reforms. In the first place, it must be disposed to do so. In France, you know, we are accustomed to charge the government with our private affairs. It is just the way to have them badly managed. We are still in the times of Louis XIV. He says: "L'Etat, c'est moi." We have not as yet dared to reply: "L'Etat, c'est nous, c'est la representation de chacun de nous." I don't count upon the state for reform. I think that although national education is what should interest it the most, nevertheless...
...does not always appoint the best men, but those who come to him the most strongly recommended, or those whose ideas are most conformable to his own. These professors - modest men, a truly honorable body - thus find themselves, in some sort, public functionaries. In 1852, after the coup d'etat of December, they were required to swear allegiance to the Empire. Certain of them, either because they had already sworn allegiance to the Republic, or because their sense of justice and morality was shocked by an illegal act, refused to swear allegiance to a government sprung from a violation...