What does the truth matter? Haven't we mothers all given our sons a taste for lies, lies which from the cradle upwards lull them, reassure them, send them to sleep: lies as soft and warm as a breast!

From exile he mocked the 'ridiculous' Vichy regime and became a strong supporter of the nationalist Free French Forces led by the conservative Charles de Gaulle. He emigrated to South America in 1938 and stayed there until 1945 for most of the time in Barbacena Brazil where he tried his hand at managing a farm. He served in the First World War as a soldier where he witnessed the battles of the Somme and Verdun.

Georges Bernanos ([bɛʁnanos]; 20 February 1888 – 5 July 1948) was a French author and a soldier in World War I.