"I am their leader; I must follow them."

"...another version of the 1848 [European] revolutions... views them primarily as farce, a revolution

Alphonse de Lamartine, poet and Minister of
Foreign Affairs in the Second Republic.

made by revolutionaries who were at best incompetent dilettantes, at worst cowards and blowhards who stole away from the scene when the going got rough. This version features the story of the Parisian revolutionary (most versions have him being Alphonse de Lamartine, the poet who was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the provisional government of the French [Second] Republic) observing from his window a demonstrating crowd go by, springing up from his chair, and rushing out, proclaiming, "I am their leader; I must follow them." (1) --Jonathan Sperber, The European Revolutions, 1848-1851