5 Quotes by Naomi J. Williams

Antoine and Marie-Anne de Lavoisier held out for Lamanon the prospect of something he had not even known he was missing till that day in May – not so much marriage between equals, although that did seem true of them, or even marriage based on love, although that was obviously the case as well, but the happy union of science and humanity within an individual, and the joy that was possible when one person, so self-integrated, encountered another such person.

This was the other lesson of survival as a modern Frenchman: make oneself useful outside the country.

If only men could do this – shed from their bodies and their selves the things that would destroy them.

Who are we to take possession of this place?” he said. “These people have lived here for hundreds of years. Do they have no rights, simply because we have muskets?

I used to think that people suffered more over sudden, unexpected deaths than over long, protracted ones, but I no longer think so. Grief always lands heavily.