We are drawn to what we lack. No one loves daylight more than a blind man.
There are miraculous relationships between beings and things; in this inexhaustible whole, from sun to aphid, no one looks down on anyone else; everyone needs each other. Light.
From suffering to suffering, he had gradually arrived at the conviction that life is a war; and that in this war he was the conquered.
All the birds that fly hold the thread of infinity in their claws. Germination.
The primitive races of mankind were terrified by the hydra that flew upon the water, by the dragon that belched fire, by the griffin, that aerial monster with wings on an eagle and a tiger’s claws – fearful creatures beyond the control of men. But man sets his traps, the miraculous traps conceived by human intelligence, and in the end he captured them.
Which of the two was the victim of the other?
It behooved wise people to play the part of their own police, and to guard themselves well, and care must be taken to duly close, bar and barricade their houses, and to fasten the doors well.
Everything looked charming to him now. Never again would he read these books, write on this little white wooden table!
Justice has its anger, Monsieur Bishop, and the wrath of justice is an element of progress. No matter what they say, the French Revolution is the greatest advance taken by mankind since the coming of Christ.
For sixteen sous he had a smile and a dinner.
Viajar es nacer y morir a cada instante.
An enormous fortress of prejudices, privileges, superstitions, lies, exactions, abuses, violences, iniquities, and darkness still stands erect in this world, with its towers of hatred. It must be cast down. This monstrous mass must be made to crumble. To conquer at Austerlitz is grand; to take the Bastille is immense.
Books are remote but reliable friends.
Certainly she was wonderfully beautiful. All that could be said of her that was in any sense critical was that there seemed to be a contradiction between the look in her eyes, which tended to melancholy, and the brightness of her smile. This had a somewhat disconcerting effect, so that at moments her charming face was puzzling without ceasing to be delightful”.
To shape the soul of a young girl, all the nuns in the world are not equal to one mother.
Gans and Savigny controversy; he took Savigny, he took Gans, read.
Sad fate! he would enter into sanctity only in the eyes of God when he returned to infamy in the eyes of men.
In opposition to this celestial tenderness, he summoned up pride, the fortress of evil in man.
The bowed frame of an old man is the settlement in the architecture of life. Nature had formed him for sadness.
He doubted everything with an air of superiority – a great power in the eyes of the weak.