Common sense is in spite of, not as the result of education.

Crime is redeemed by remorse, but not by a blow of the axe or slipknot. Blood has to be washed by tears but not by blood.

I exist," murmurs someone whose name is Everyone. "I'm young and in love; I am old and I want rest; I work, I prosper, I do good business, I have houses to rent, money in State Securities; I am happy, I have wife and children; I like all these things and I want to go on living, so leave me alone."... There are moments when all this casts a deep chill on the large-minded pioneers of the human race.

There is one spectacle grander than the sea, That is the sky.

Not seeing people permits us to imagine them with every perfection.

The convent is supreme egotism resulting in supreme self-denial.

As for the bishop, the sight of the guillotine was a great shock to him, from which he recovered only slowly.