Quotes from Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

. . .where there is no more hope, song remains.

The goodness of the mother is written in the gaiety of the child.

I advance in life, I grow more simple, and I become more and more patriotic for humanity.

The senator...was a smart man who had made his way in life with a single-mindedness oblivious to any of those stumbling blocks known as conscience, sworn oaths, justice, duty...

Death belongs only to God. What right have men to lay hands on a thing so unknown?

Because things are not agreeable, " said Jean Valjean, "that is no reason for being unjust towards God.

Be happy without picking flaws.

Every day has its great grief or its small anxiety. ... One cloud is dispelled, another forms. There is hardly one day in a hundred of real joy and bright sunshine.

Let us study things that are no more. It is necessary to understand them, if only to avoid them.

There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.

I repeat, whether we be Italians or Frenchmen, misery concerns us all.

Ever since history has been written, ever since philosophy has meditated, misery has been the garment of the human race.

It is not enough to be happy, one must be content.

Those who do not weep, do not see.

Not being heard is no reason for silence.

When you shall have learned to know, and to love, you will still suffer. The day is born in tears. The luminous weep, if only over those in darkness.

Life's great happiness is to be convinced we are loved.

where the telescope ends the microscope begins, and who can say which has the wider vision?

As for methods of prayer, all are good, as long as they are sincere.

The best minds have their soft spots and sometimes feel somewhat bruised by the scant respect of logic.

And do you know Monsieur Marius? I believe I was a little in love with you.

The sins of women and children, domestic servants and the weak, the poor and the ignorant, are the sins of the husbands and fathers, the masters, the strong and the rich and the educated.

Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are done, we recognize one thing: that the human race has been badly manhandled, but that it has moved forward.

It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.