Alfred de Musset, Lorenzaccio

"Look at the sun! It’s dry, it’s dead, it needs a drink, it wants blood! And I’ll give it blood!"

"There are temptations more attractive than angels. Liberty, Patriotism, the good of humanity – words like that are the silver scales of the Tempter’s flaming wings"

"The blood of my motherland waters a magic plant that cures all ills. That plant is art, and sometimes art needs corruption as a kind of fertilizer"

"Is is true that dictators never dream because they can change their smallest fantasies into realities if they want to?"

"Nothing is a sin when you obey the orders of a priest"

"You’re like a lighthouse shining beside the sea of humanity, motionless: all you can see is your own reflection in the water. You’re alone, so you think it’s a vast, magnificent panorama. You haven’t sounded the depths. You simply believe in the beauty of God’s creation. But I have spent all this time in the water, diving deep into the howling ocean of life, deeper than anyone. While you were admiring the surface, I saw the shipwrecks, the drowned bodies, the monsters of the deep"