"The symbols of religion had been smashed with hammers and above the door was inscribed in black letters the slogan of the Republic: 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity- or Death'" (Chapter 1, p. 27).

"Mother, the scarcity we're suffering from is caused by the monopolists and speculators who starve the people and conspire with our enemies outside the country to turn the citizens against the Republic and to destroy liberty" (Chapter 2, p. 38).

"You live in a dream; I see life as it is. Believe me, my friend, the Revolution's become a bore: it's lasted too long. Five years of rapture, five years of brotherly love, of massacres, of endless speeches, of the Marseillaise, of bells ringing to man the barricades, of aristocrats hanging from lamp-posts, of heads stuck on pikes, of women with cannons between their legs, of little girls and old men in white robes on flower-bedecked chariots, the prisoners, the...