Quotes from Victor Hugo

A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.

Ideas can no more flow backward than can a river.

God created the flirt as soon as he made the fool.

The greatest happines of life is the conviction that we are loved-loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and cannot remain silent

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labour and an invisible labour.

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.

Hypocrisy is nothing, in fact, but a horrible hopefulness.

Nothing awakens a reminiscence like an odor

If you would civilize a man, begin with his grandmother.

Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.

To think of shadows is a serious thing.

Excitement is not enjoyment: in calmness lies true pleasure. The most precious wines are sipped, not bolted at a swallow.

The beautiful has but one type, the ugly has a thousand.

The beautiful has but one type, the ugly a thousand

England has two books, one which she has made and one which has made her: Shakespeare and the Bible.

There is a sacred horror about everything grand. It is easy to admire mediocrity and hills; but whatever is too lofty, a genius as well as a mountain, an assembly as well as a masterpiece, seen too near, is appalling.

Hell is an outrage on humanity. When you tell me that your deity made you in his image, I reply that he must have been very ugly.

Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers.

Son, brother, father, lover, friend. There is room in the heart for all the affections, as there is room in heaven for all the stars.

Evil. Mistrust those who rejoice at it even more than those who do it.

A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it.

Everything bows to success, even grammar.

There is no such thing as a little country. The greatness of a people is no more determined by their numbers than the greatness of a man is by his height.