“I have no religion,’ says Borneau, ‘but I respect the religion of others. Religion is sacred.’ Why this privilege, this immunity?... A believer creates God in his own image; if he is ugly, his God will be morally ugly. Why should moral ugliness be respectable?”

“I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn't.”

“God does not believe in our God.”

“Posterity! Why should people be less stupid tomorrow than they are today?”

“At the bottom of all patriotism there is war: that is why I am no patriot.”

“if I were to begin my life again, I should want it as it was. I would only open my eyes a little more.”

“I can't get around this dilemma: I have a horror of troubles, but they whip me up, they make me talented. Peace and well-being, on the contrary, paralyze me. Either be a nobody, or everlastingly plagued.”