"For schama the French revolution was a bloody interlude and as with furet he feels that the revolution lost its way with the terror"
" The french revolutionaries were an assortment of unexceptional circumstances who when things fell apart responded to an overwhelming need to make sense of things according to new principles"
The second quote is supposed to be
"The French revolutionaries were not Stalinists. They were an assortment of unexceptional persona in exceptional circumstances. When things fell apart, they responded to an overwhelming need to make sense of things by ordering society according to new principles. Those principles still stand as an indictment of tyranny and injustice. What was the French Revolution all about? Liberty, equality, fraternity." - Darnton
Which - to match what you posted:
"The French revolutionaries... were an assortment of unexceptional persona in exception circumstances. When things fell apart, they responded to an overwhelming need to make sense of things by ordering society according to new principles" - Darnton
I don't know about the first one as I don't know who said it, but it sounds like something from a text book. Still, I can tell you it means that Simon Schama and François Furet (both historians) believe that during the Reign of Terror (5 September 1793 – 27 July 1794), the principles of the revolution (for example Liberty) were compromised.
Daniel