Idleness is the heaviest of all oppressions.

The book which the reader now holds in his hands, from one end to the other, as a whole and in its details, whatever gaps, exceptions, or weaknesses it may contain, treats of the advance from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsity to truth, from darkness to daylight, from blind appetite to conscience, from decay to life, from bestiality to duty, from Hell to Heaven, from limbo to God. Matter itself is the starting-point, and the point of arrival is the soul. Hydra at the beginning, an angel at the end.

To die is nothing; but it is terrible not to live.

The wise man is he who knows when and how to stop

Superstition, bigotry and prejudice, ghosts though they are, cling tenaciously to life; they are shades armed with tooth and claw. They must be grappled with unceasingly, for it is a fateful part of human destiny that it is condemned to wage perpetual war against ghosts. A shade is not easily taken by the throat and destroyed.

Son, brother, father, lover, friend. There is room in the heart for all the affections, as there is room in heaven for all the stars.

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