"It will remain motionless so long as each scale is empty. So with the will; and the oscillation of the scales between two weights which seem equal represents the strain on our mind when it is hesitating between different motives, till the moment when the more powerful motive gets the better of it and leads it to a determination."
"All that," said Girbal, "makes no difference for Touache, and does not prevent him from being a downright vicious rogue."
Pécuchet addressed the company:
"Vices are properties of Nature, like floods, tempests."
The notary stopped, and raising himself on tiptoe at every word:
"I consider your system one of complete immorality. It gives scope to every kind of excess, excuses crimes, and declares the guilty innocent."
"Exactly," replied Bouvard; "the wretch who follows his appetites is right from his own point of view just as much as the honest man who listens to reason."
"Do not defend monsters!"
"Wherefore monsters? When a person is born blind, an idiot, a homicide, this appears to us to be opposed to order, as if order were known to us, as if Nature were striving towards an end."
"You then raise a question about Providence?"