“A reflection from this heaven shone upon the bishop. But it was also a luminous transparency, for this heaven was within him: this heaven was his conscience.”

“And so, being in Heaven, it was easy for him to lose sight of earth.”

“That men saw his mask, but the bishop saw his face. That men saw his life, but the bishop saw his conscience.”

“Good actions are the invisible hinges on the doors of heaven.”

“The soul of the just contemplates in sleep a mysterious heaven.”

“The book the reader has now before his eyes - from one end to the other, in its whole and in its details, whatever the omissions, the exceptions, or the faults - is the march from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from the false to the true, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from rottenness to life, from brutality to duty, from Hell to Heaven, from nothingness to God. Starting point: matter; goal: the soul. Hydra at the beginning, angel at the end.”

“At his feet something to cultivate and gather; above his head something to study and meditate on; a few flowers on earth and all the stars in heaven.”