Quotes from Victor Hugo

Conscience is God present in man.

The word is the Verb, and the Verb is God.

What a gloomy thing, not to know the address of one's soul.

A day will come when a cannon will be exhibited in museums, just as instruments of torture are now, and the people will be astonished that such a thing could have been.

Common sense is in spite of, not as the result of education.

Well, for us, in history where goodness is a rare pearl, he who was good almost takes precedence over he who was great.

No one ever keeps a secret so well as a child.

Rhyme, that enslaved queen, that supreme charm of our poetry, that creator of our meter.

I love all men who think, even those who think otherwise than myself.

To think is of itself to be useful it is always and in all cases a striving toward God.

Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?

Joy's smile is much closer to tears than laughter.

Be it true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence on their lives, and especially on their destinies, as what they do.

Because one doesn't like the way things are is no reason to be unjust towards God.

A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.

I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, his cloak was out at the elbows, the water passed through his shoes, - and the stars through his soul.

The ideal and the beautiful are identical the ideal corresponds to the idea, and beauty to form hence idea and substance are cognate.

The drama is complete poetry. The ode and the epic contain it only in germ it contains both of them in a state of high development, and epitomizes both.

The first symptom of love in a young man is timidity in a girl boldness.

I am a soul. I know well that what I shall render up to the grave is not myself. That which is myself will go elsewhere. Earth, thou art not my abyss!

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

At the shrine of friendship never say die, let the wine of friendship never run dry. (Les Miserables)

Can man, created good by God, be made wicked by man?

Close by the Rights of Man, at the least set beside them, are the Rights of the Spirit.