They are masters and lords.

The apparent government, composed of poor devils, is in the pay of the financiers.

For one hundred years, in this poisoned country, whoever has loved the poor has been considered a traitor to society.

A man is called dangerous when he says that there are wretched people.

There are laws against indignation and pity, and what I say here could not go into print." Choulette became excited and waved his knife, while under the wintry sunlight passed fields of brown earth, trees despoiled by winter, and curtains of poplars beside silvery rivers.
He looked with tenderness at the figure carved on his stick.
"Here you are," he said, "poor humanity, thin and weeping, stupid with shame and misery, as you were made by your masters--soldiers and men of wealth." The good Madame Marmet, whose nephew was a captain in the artillery, was shocked at the violence with which Choulette attacked the army.