The truth of an upright man must be accepted on his own terms. Moreover, since natures vary, we must agree that all the beauties of human excellence may be fostered by faiths that we do not share.
I represent a party which does not yet exist: the party Revolution-Civilization. This party will make the twentieth century. There will issue from it first the United States of Europe, then the United States of the World.
Philosophy is the microscope of thought. Everything desires to flee from it, but nothing escapes it.
That is to be two and to be but one. A man and a woman mingled into one angel. It is heaven.
In every cradle decked with rosy wreath Lurk germs of death.
Enthusiasm is the fever of reason.
A man trying to escape never thinks himself sufficiently concealed.
Emotion is always new.
Dry happiness is like dry bread. We eat, but we do not dine. I wish for the superfluous, for the useless, for the extravagant, for the too much, for that which is not good for anything.
Have but luck, and you will have the rest; be fortunate, and you will be thought great.
God became man, granted. The devil became a woman.
To see so much misery everywhere, I suspect that God is not rich. He keeps up appearances, it is true, but I feel the pinch. He gives a revolution as a merchant, whose credit is low, gives a ball.
Idleness is a mother. She has a son, robbery, and a daughter, hunger.
I will be Chateaubriand or nothing.
Need is a low door which, when we must by stern necessity pass through, forces the greatest to bend down the most.
Popularity? It’s glory’s small change.
No one can keep a secret better than a child.
Thought is the work of the intellect, reverie is its self-indulgence. To substitute day-dreaming for thought is to confuse a poison with a source of nourishment.
Puns are the droppings of soaring wits.
The word is the Verb, and the Verb is God.