Jules Michelet

Animal life, sombre mystery. All nature protests against the barbarity of man, who misapprehends, who humiliates, who tortures his inferior brethren.

Coffee, the sober drink, the mighty nourishment of the brain, which unlike other spirits, heightens purity and lucidity; coffee, which clears the clouds of the imagination and their gloomy weight; which illuminates the reality of things suddenly with the flush of truth.

How beautifully everything is arranged by Nature; as soon as a child enters the world, it finds a mother ready to take care of it.

The historian's first duties are sacrilege and the mocking of false gods. They are his indispensable instruments for establishing the truth.