All who suffer are full of hatred; all who live drag a remorse: the dead alone have broken their chains.

I have examined the death penalty under each of its two aspects: as a direct action, and as an indirect one. What does it come down to? Nothing but something horrible and useless, nothing but a way of shedding blood that is called a crime when an individual commits it, but is sadly called "justice" when society brings it about. Make no mistake, you lawmakers and judges, in the eyes of God as in those of conscience, what is a crime when individuals do it is no less an offense when society commits the deed.

Memory is a gulf that a word can move to its lowest depths.

To rove about, musing, that is to say loitering, is, for a philosopher, a good way of spending time.

Need is a low door which, when we must by stern necessity pass through, forces the greatest to bend down the most.

She loved with so much passion as she loved with ignorance. She did not know whether it were good or evil, beneficent or dangerous, necessary or accidental, eternal or transitory, permitted or prohibited: she loved.

A bird sings, a child prattles, but it is the same hymn; hymn indistinct, inarticulate, but full of profound meaning.