Quotes from Victor Hugo

The Grave and The Rose The Grave said to the Rose, What of the dews of dawn, Love's flower, what end is theirs? And what of spirits flown, The souls whereon doth close The tomb's mouth unawares? The Rose said to the Grave. The Rose said, In the shade From the dawn's tears is made A perfume faint and strange, Amber and honey sweet. And all the spirits fleet Do suffer a sky-change, More strangely than the dew, To God's own angels new, The Grave said to the Rose

Ignominy thirsts for respect.

It is possible to conceive of something even more terrible than a hell of suffering, and that is a hell of boredom.

Certaines personnes sont méchantes uniquement par besoin de parler. Leur conversation, causerie dans le salon, bavardage dans l`antichambre, est comme ces cheminées qui usent vite le bois; il leur faut beaucoup de combustible; et le combustible, c'est le prochain.

Without seeking to comprehend the incomprehensible, he gazed upon it. He did not study God; he was dazzled by Him.

he never was known to have a sweetheart; he had not time to be in love.

To love or have loved is enough. Don't ask for anything more. There is no other pearl to be found in the shadowy folds of life. To love is an achievement.

Jean Valjean opened his eyes and looked at the bishop with an expression which no human tongue can describe.

The supreme happiness of life consists in the conviction that one is loved; loved for one's own sake-let us say rather in spite of one's self.

All their teeth are yellow. No tooth-brush ever entered that convent. Brushing one's teeth is at the top of a ladder at whose bottom is the loss of one's soul.

Aures habet, et non audiet.

It is sad to tell, but after having tried society, which had caused his misfortune, he tried Providence which created society, and condemned it also.

Great grief contains dejection. They discourage existence.

There is, as we know, a philosophy which denies the infinite. There is also a philosophy, pathologically classified, which denies the sun; this philosophy is called blindness.

A moment later he was in his garden, walking, meditating, contemplating, his heart and soul wholly absorbed in those grand and mysterious things which God shows at night to the eyes which remain open.

It is the same with wretchedness as with everything else. It ends by becoming bearable.

Thenardier had just passed his fiftieth birthday; Madame Thenardier was approaching her forties, which is equivalent to fifty in a woman; so that there existed a balance of age between husband and wife.

Le livre, comme livre, appartient à l'auteur, mais comme pensée, il appartient -le mot n'est pas trop vaste- au genre humain. Toutes les intelligences y ont droit. Si l'un des deux droits, le droit de l'écrivain et le droit de l'esprit humain, devait être sacrifié, ce serait, certes, le droit de l'écrivain, car l'intérêt public est notre préoccupation unique, et tous, je le déclare, doivent passer avant nous.

What dangers you run, O noble souls! Often, you give your heart, but we take only your body. Your heart is left to you and you look at it in the shadows and shudder.

Madame Magloire, retorted the Bishop, you are mistaken. The beautiful is as useful as the useful. He added after a pause, More so, perhaps.

The souls of the upright in sleep have vision of a mysterious heaven.

If there did not exist some one who loved, the sun would become extinct.

Books are cold, but sure friends indeed.

It was like a hand which had opened and thrown suddenly upon her a handful of sunbeams.