The opposite of an idealist is too often a man without love.

There are means that cannot be excused. And I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don't want just any greatness for it, particularly a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive.

And never have I felt so deeply at one and the same time so detached from myself and so present in the world.

Capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders.

There is nothing abstract about pain. It is specific, it is real, and, when it is intense, it is world destroying.

Youth is above all a collection of possibilities.

The Poor Man whom everyone speaks of, the Poor Man whom everyone pities, one of the repulsive Poor from whom charitable souls keep their distance, he has still said nothing. Or, rather, he has spoken through the voice of Victor Hugo, Zola, Richepin. At least, they said so. And these shameful impostures fed their authors. Cruel irony, the Poor Man tormented with hunger feeds those who plead his case.