The spirit of God, like the sun, always gives all its light at once. The spirit of man resembles the pale moon, which has its phases, its absences and its returns, its lucidity and its spots, its fullness and its disappearance, which borrows all its light from the rays of the sun, and which still dares to intercept them on occasion.

When the heart is dry the eye is dry.

It is the essence of truth that it is never excessive.... We must not resort to the flame where only light is required.

We shall look on crime as a disease, and its physicians shall displace the judges, its hospitals displace the Galleys. Liberty and health shall be alike. We shall pour balm and oil where we formerly applied iron and fire; evil will be treated in charity, instead of in anger. This change will be simple and sublime.

France is great because she is France.

Promise to give me a kiss on my brow when I am dead.--I shall feel it.

To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better.