The progress of rivers to the ocean is not so rapid as that of man to error.

I am the best-natured creature in the world, and yet I have already killed three, and of these three two were priests.

Fame is a heavy burden.

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

Nothing could be smarter, more splendid, more brilliant, better drawn up than two armies. Trumpets, fifes, hautboys, drums, cannons, formed a harmony such as never been heard in hell.

The malevolence of men revealed itself to his mind in all of its ugliness

It is amusing that a virtue is made of the vice of chastity; and it's a pretty odd sort of chastity at that, which leads men straight into the sin of Onan, and girls to the waning of their color.