No matter who you are, the thought of so much suffering and degradation must cause you to shudder at the sight of a veil or cassock, those two shrouds of human invention.

I will be Chateaubriand or nothing.

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

Hope is a delusion; no hand can grasp a wave or a shadow.

We need those who pray constantly to compensate for those who do not pray at all.

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

Anger may be foolish and absurd, and one may be wrongly irritated, but a man never feels outraged unless in some respect he is fundamentally right.