Great adventures have shaken those childhood companions of ours, stamps which a thousand bonds of mystery unite with the history of the world ... Here are the stamps of defeats, the stamps of revolutions. Used, mint - what do I care? I shall never begin to understand all this history and geography. Surcharges, overprints - your black enigmas terrify me: behind them are concealed an unknown ruler, a massacre, palaces in flames, and the song of a mob, waving placards and shouting slogans, that marches towards a throne ...

Aragon, Paris Peasant