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Towards this fine honor of a trade converged all the finest, all the most noble sentiments—dignity, pride. Never ask anything of anyone, they used to say. … In those days a workman did not know what it was to solicit. It is the bourgeoisie who, turning the workmen into bourgeois, have taught them to solicit.

— Charles Péguy Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry (1943)

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More quotes by Charles Péguy

The faith that I love the best, says God, is hope.

The Portal of the Mystery of Hope (1912)

Tyranny is always better organized than freedom.

He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.

Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry (1943)

There will be things that I do that no one will be left to understand.

Le Mystère des saints Innocents [The Mystery of the Holy Innocents (1912)

Tyranny is always better organised than freedom.

Basic Verities, Prose and Poetry (1943)

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The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.

Robert Frost A Boy's Will (1913)

In a society such as ours, it is almost impossible for a person to be responsible.

Jacques Ellul The Betrayal by Technology (1993)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Charles Péguy (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.