Where Are the Omelets?

By Lawrence W. Reed

On ne saurait faire une omelette sans casser des oeufs.

Translation: “One can’t expect to make an omelet without breaking eggs.”

With those words in 1790, Maximilian Robespierre welcomed the horrific French Revolution that had begun the year before. A consummate statist who worked tirelessly to plan the lives of others, he would become the architect of the Revolution’s bloodiest phase — the Reign of Terror of 1793–94. Robespierre and his guillotine broke eggs by the thousands...