"The happy revolution which we have just brought to a glorious conclusion under the visible auspices of God has placed the supreme power in our hands. By virtue of this power we have declared ourselves to be free and independent and have deprived and dismissed the former duke, Joseph II, from all sovereignty..."

"Much in these revolutionary activities [in Brabant] brings to mind the Patriot troubles in the Dutch Republic. As in the North, this nationalism was...based on a profound feeling of nostalgia...and closely related to a profound feeling of humiliation."

"They informed Joseph II that his measures might be appropriate for "peoples in the infancy of civilization" such as the Austrians, but not for "a people traditionally civilized, a nation which for six hundred years has refused to submit to any system of blind, arbitrary and oppressive feudal authority"."

"Le congrès ne marche pas, il danse."

"Thénardier, seated beside a candle in the public room of the tavern, pen in hand, was making out the bill for the traveller with the yellow coat. His wife, standing beside him, and half bent over him, was following him with her eyes. [...] “Twenty-three francs!” cried the woman, with an enthusiasm which was mingled with some hesitation. Like all great artists, Thénardier was dissatisfied. “Peuh!” he exclaimed. It was the accent of Castlereagh auditing France’s bill at the Congress of Vienna."