The darkness is at its deepest. Just before the sunrise.

One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything's fine today, that is our illusion.

What can we say with certainty?

The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.

It is the flash which appears, the thunderbolt will follow.

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him; let us worship God through Jesus if we must - if ignorance has so far prevailed that this name can still be spoken in all seriousness without being taken as a synonym for rapine and carnage. Every sensible man, every honourable man, must hold the Christian sect in horror.

What a pessimist you are!" exclaimed Candide. "That is because I know what life is," said Martin.