Often the losing of a battle leads to the winning of progress. Less glory but greater liberty: the drum is silent and the voices of reason can be heard.

There are men who dig for gold; [Monseigneur Bienvenu] dug for compassion.

Great grief is a divine and terrible radiance which transfigures the wretched.

I love all men who think, even those who think otherwise than myself.

The men of yesterday are spectres; those of to-morrow are forms. The eye of the spirit distinguishes them but obscurely. The embryonic work of the future is one of the visions of philosophy.

The most sovereign symptom of love is a tenderness that is, at times, almost unbearable.

Try as you will, you cannot annihilate that eternal relic of the human heart, love.