Danton and Robespierre were around the same age, were both provincial lawyers before they started out in politics, and were both fanatical revolutionaries who believed in meting out extreme violence to anyone they perceived as enemies of the French Revolution.

In terms of personality, however, the two men couldn't have been more different. Danton was an outgoing, gregarious man, a lover of fine wine and good company. He had a filthy sense of humor which deeply offended the more fastidious Robespierre.

Robespierre himself was a bit of a prig, a bloodless, humorless individual who prided himself on his incorruptibility and his ceaseless devotion to the revolutionary cause. Even at the height of his power, when he was the most feared man in France, Robespierre still lived in modest lodgings with a family that regarded him with something approaching awe.

Danton, on the other hand, was regularly accused of corruption. His enemies never hesitated to point the finger at him, claiming that he cynically used political power to line his own pockets. The truth of such accusations cannot be established with any degree of certainty. However, one thing that is certain is that they helped precipitate Danton's downfall, which led to his going to the guillotine.

In any case, Danton had already earned the undying enmity of die-hard fanatics like Robespierre for calling for an end to the Terror. Though initially supportive of the Terror, Danton came to realize that it was rapidly getting out of hand. His subsequent alliance with moderates such as Desmoulins sealed his fate with the more radical Jacobins, who saw his moderation as nothing more than outright treachery.

Both Danton and Robespierre dreamed of a republic replacing the French monarchy. Both men want an elected government based on coherent laws equally applicable to all citizens, not a state run on the whim of a monarch. While republics—states in which the people elect the government—are commonplace now, republicanism was a radical concept in the late eighteenth century, as it was a time when most European nations were hereditary monarchies.

A main difference between the two men, who both wished to support the interests of the common person, was Robespierre's strong advocacy for a morally virtuous republic. Danton was much more interested in maintaining law, order, and tradition than in imposing morality on the French people, and was more in support of a "live and let live" government as long as people followed the law.

Another major difference, and the one that tore the two men apart, was their attitude to the Terror. Robespierre, the main architect of the Reign of Terror that sent 18,000 people to the guillotine, wanted to keep the terror going strong in order to purify the country of elements likely to oppose the new government. Danton wanted to drastically slow down the executions and end the terror, which he felt was largely unnecessary.

Robespierre engineered Danton's arrest and execution, only to fall himself to the guillotine a few months later.

Maximillen Robespierre and Georges Danton were born within a year of each other, both came from middle-class backgrounds, both became lawyers passionately opposed to the French monarchy, and both were leading figures in the French Revolution.  Both supported the violent overthrow of the monarchy and the execution of the King Louis XVI.  Both played major roles in the new republic, both were Jacobins, and both would die by the guillotine, albeit with slightly more humor on the part of Danton, whose last words reportedly were, "Do not forget to show my head to the people, it is well worth seeing."

The differences come down to degree of ruthlessness, with Robespierre's becoming the name synonymous with the Reign of Terror.  They were rivals for power, and both engaged in Machiavellian maneuvers within the revolutionary government.   The main difference was Danton's pleas for an end to the reign of terror, which he saw as increasingly self-destructive for the revolution.  Robespierre, in contrast, wanted to prolong and intensify the terror, so as to ensure the physical elimination of all potential enemies of the revolution.  Robespierre would emerge the victor in their rivalry, with Danton being subjected to a show trial and executed, to be followed four months later by Robespierre's own execution.