François Guizot

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François Guizot bigraphy, stories - French historian

François Guizot : biography

4 October 1787 – 12 September 1874

François Pierre Guillaume Guizot ( 1787–1874) was a French historian, orator, and statesman. Guizot was a dominant figure in French politics prior to the Revolution of 1848, a conservative liberal who opposed the attempt by King Charles X to usurp legislative power, and worked to sustain a constitutional monarchy following the July Revolution of 1830. He then served the "citizen king" Louis Philippe, as Minister of Education, 1832–37, ambassador to London, Foreign Minister 1840–1847, and finally Prime Minister of France from 19 September 1847 to 23 February 1848. Guizot’s influence was critical in expanding public education, which under his ministry saw the creation of primary schools in every French commune. But as a leader of the "Doctrinaires", committed to supporting the policies of Louis Phillipe and limitations on further expansion of the political franchise, he earned the hatred of more left-leaning liberals and republicans through his unswerving support for restricting suffrage to propertied men, advising those who wanted the vote to "enrich yourselves" (enrichissez-vous) through hard work and thrift. As Prime Minister, it was Guizot’s ban on the political meetings (called the Paris Banquets, which celebrated the birthday of George Washington) of an increasingly vigorous opposition in January 1848 that catalyzed the revolution that toppled Louis Philippe in February and saw the establishment of the French Second Republic.

Guizot is famous as the originator of the quote "Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head".See page 327 in The Yale book of quotations, Fred R. Shapiro & Joseph Epstein, Yale University Press, 2006 This quote has been reworked many times, especially in reference to socialism and liberalism. It has been borrowed by or attributed to many notable figures who lived after Guizot, including Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, Benjamin Disraeli, Georges Clemenceau,List of misquotations, Wikiquote Otto von Bismarck, Aristide Briand, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, Wendell Willkie, William J. Casey, and others.

Quotes

  • "You may raise the pile of calumny as high as you like; it will never reach the height of my disdain" (#The second Soult government)
  • "The spirit of revolution, the spirit of insurrection, is a spirit radically opposed to liberty"
  • "Not to be a republican at 20 is proof of want of heart; to be one at 30 is proof of want of head".See page 327 in The Yale book of quotations, Fred R. Shapiro & Joseph Epstein, Yale University Press, 2006

Biography

Early years

Guizot was born at Nîmes to a bourgeois Protestant family. On 8 April 1794, when François Guizot was 7, his father was executed on the scaffold at Nîmes during the Reign of Terror. From then on, the boy’s mother was completely responsible for his upbringing.

Madame Guizot had great influence over Francois Guizot and was part of his circle of friends. In the days of his exile in 1848 she followed him to London, and there at a very advanced age died and was buried at Kensal Green.

Driven from Nîmes by the Revolution, Madame Guizot and her son went to Geneva, where he was educated. In spite of her decided Calvinistic opinions, the theories of Jean-Jacques Rousseau influenced Madame Guizot. She was a strong Liberal, and she even adopted the notion inculcated in Emile that every man ought to learn a manual trade or craft. Guizot was taught to be a carpenter, and succeeded in making a table with his own hands, which is still preserved. In the work which he entitled Memoirs of my own Times Guizot omitted all personal details of his earlier life. In 1805 he arrived in Paris and he entered at the age eighteen as tutor into the family of M. Stapfer, formerly Swiss minister in France, and he soon began to write in a journal edited by Suard, the Publiciste. This connection introduced him to the literary society of Paris.