Mankind is not a circle with a single center but an ellipse with two focal points of which facts are one and ideas the other.

He did not study God; he was dazzled by him.

The last resort of kings, the cannonball. The last resort of the people, the paving stone.

What matters deafness of the ear, when the mind hears? The one true deafness, the incurable deafness, is that of the mind.

A saint addicted to excessive self-abnegation is a dangerous associate; he may infect you with poverty, and a stiffening of those joints which are needed for advancement-in a word, with more renunciation than you care for-and so you flee the contagion.

If he had had all Peru in his pocket, he would certainly have given it to this dancer; but Gringoire had not Peru in his pocket; and besides, America was not yet discovered. (p. 66)

But alas, if I have not maintained my victory, it is God's fault for not making man and the devil of equal strength.