Charles Péguy Charles Péguy ( ; January 7 , 1873 – September 4 , 1914 ) was a noted French poet , essayist , and editor born in Orléans . His two main philosophies were socialism and nationalism , but by 1908 at the latest , after years of uneasy agnosticism , he had become a devout but non - practicing Roman Catholic . From that time , Catholicism strongly influenced his works . Biography . Péguy was born to poverty . His mother Cécile , widowed when he was an infant , mended chairs for a living . His father , Désiré Péguy , was a cabinet maker , who died in 1874 as a result of combat wounds . He studied at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux , winning a scholarship at the " École Normale Supérieure " , where he attended notably the lectures of Henri Bergson and Romain Rolland , whom he befriended . He formally left the " École Normale " , without graduating , in 1897 , even though he continued attending some lectures in 1898 . Influenced by Lucien Herr ( librarian of the " École Normale " ) , he became an ardent Dreyfusard . In 1897 , at age 24 , Péguy married Charlotte - Françoise Baudoin ; they had one daughter and three sons , one of whom was born after Péguy ' s death . Around 1910 he fell deeply in love with Blanche Raphael , a young Jewish friend , however he was faithful to his wife . From his earliest years , he was influenced by socialism . In 1895 Péguy joined the Socialist Party . From 1900 to his death in 1914 , he was the main contributor and the editor of the literary magazine " Les Cahiers de la Quinzaine " , which first supported the Socialist Party director Jean Jaurès . Péguy ultimately ended his support after he began viewing Jaurès as a traitor to the nation and to socialism . In the " Cahiers " , Péguy published not only his own essays and poetry , but also works by important contemporary authors such as Romain Rolland . His free verse poem , " Portico of the Mystery of the Second Virtue " , has gone through more than 60 editions in France . It was a favorite book of Charles de Gaulle . He died in battle , shot in the forehead , in Villeroy , Seine - et - Marne during World War I , on the day before the beginning of the Battle of the Marne . Influence . Benito Mussolini referred to Péguy as a " source " for Fascism . But , according to Zaretsky in " The Virginia Quarterly Review " , Péguy would have likely been horrified by this appropriation . During World War II both supporters and opponents of Vichy France cited Péguy . Edmond Michelet was the first of many members of the French Resistance to quote Péguy ; de Gaulle , familiar with Péguy ' s writing , quoted him a 1942 speech . Those who opposed Vichy ' s anti - Semitism laws often cited him . By contrast , Robert Brasillach praised Péguy as a " French National Socialist " , and his sons Pierre and Marcel wrote that their father was an inspiration for Vichy ' s National Revolution ideology and " above all , a racist " . At the end of Graham Greene ' s novel " Brighton Rock " ( 1938 ) , the unnamed , old French priest tells Rose about a man who never took the sacraments but who some think was a saint — an obvious reference to Péguy . In 1983 , Geoffrey Hill published a long poem with the title " The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy " . Famous quotations . " The sinner is at the very heart of Christianity . Nobody is so competent as the sinner in matters of Christianity . Nobody , except the saint . " " It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive . " ( " Notre Patrie " , 1905 ) . " Tyranny is always better organised than freedom " . " It has never been given to a man to attain at once his happiness and his salvation . " " Kantianism has clean hands , but it has no hands . " " Homer is new and fresh this morning , and nothing , perhaps , is so old and tired as today ' s newspaper . " “ Life holds only one tragedy , ultimately : not to have been a saint . ” " Surrender is essentially an operation by means of which we set out explaining instead of acting . " " He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers . " " A word is not the same with one writer as with another . One tears it from his guts . The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket . " " How maddening , says God , it will be when there are no longer any Frenchmen " ; " There will be things that I do that no one will be left to understand . " ( " Le Mystère des saints Innocents " ) " It is impossible to write ancient history because we do not have enough sources , and impossible to write modern history because we have too many " . ( " Clio " , 1909 ) " Everything begins in mysticism and ends in politics . " ( " Notre Jeunesse " , 1909 ) ( translated into English as " The Portal of the Mystery of Hope " )