A cannonball travels only two thousand miles an hour; light travels two hundred thousand miles a second. Such is the superiority of Jesus Christ over Napoleon.

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

That men saw his mask, but the bishop saw his face. That men saw his life, but the bishop saw his conscience.

Teach the ignorant as much as you can; society is culpable in not providing a free education for all and it must answer for the night which it produces. If the soul is left in darkness sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.

I believe, sir, in all the progress. Air navigation is the result of the oceanic navigation: from water the human has to pass in the air. Everywhere where creation will be breathable to him, the human will penetrate into the creation. Our only limit is life.

During a wise man's whole life, his destiny holds his philosophy in a state of siege.

Prayer is an august avowal of ignorance.