O Almighty God, O Divinity, Helpful Power, whoever, whatever Thou mayst be, take pity upon poor mankind and make human suffering cease! All - Émile Zola

He was possessed now with that obsession for the cross in which so many lips have worn themselves away on crucifixes.

And then there was pain and blood and tears, all those things that cause suffering and revolt, the killing of Françoise, the killing of Fouan, vice triumphing, and the stinking, bloodthirsty peasants, vermin who disgrace and exploit the earth. But can you really know? Just as the frost that burns the crops, the hail that chops them down, the thunderstorms which batter them are all perhaps necessary, maybe blood and tears are needed to keep the world going. And how important is human misery when weighed against the mighty mechanism of the stars and the sun? What does God care for us? We earn our bread only by dint of a cruel struggle, day in, day out. And only the earth is immortal, the Great Mother from whom we spring and to whom we return, love of whom can drive us to crime and through whom life is perpetually preserved for her own inscrutable ends, in which even our wretched degraded nature has its part to play.

Askerlerin kanında bulunan üstün disiplin düşüncesi, doğruluk yetkesini saptırmaya yetmez mi? Disiplin demek boyun eğme demektir.

Ordunun onurundan söz ediliyor bize, onu sevmemiz, ona saygı göstermemiz isteniyor. Evet hiç kuşkusuz, ilk tehditte ayağa kalkacak, Fransız toprağını savunacak olan ordu tüm halktır, ona ancak sevgi ve saygı duyarız. Ama söz konusu o değil, biz de adalet gereksinimimiz içinde onun saygın kalmasını istiyoruz. Belki de yarın bizim elimize verecekleri kılıç sözkonusu, o efendi söz konusu. Kılıcın kabzasını, o tanrıyı dindarca öpmeye gelince, hayır!