“Let our love of liberty, gentlemen, be our guide. That word says it all: love of order, respect for law and for morality; with liberty, all property is inviolate; the lives of the innocent are sacred, man is innocent until proved guilty under the law; with liberty, there are universal guarantees and all prosper. But let us not forget, gentlemen, that liberty is based on strict principles that fear license as much as tyranny.”
– Monseigneur Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette in a speech to members of the French National Guard on July 20, 1790.
His time in America clearly changed him for the better. The enragees and sans-cullotes cared little about future promises and just wanted to see the ancien regime burn and die even if it would be to their detriment.
The American Revolution is the promise of what can happen when your best & brightest have a common plan and keep to the plan. The French Revolution is what you get when you let the peasants drive the bus.