Quotes About Defiance

Gentlemen of the human race, I say to hell with the lot of you.

There is a determined though unseen bravery that defends itself foot by foot in the darkness against the fatal invasions of necessity and dishonesty. Noble and mysterious triumphs that no eye sees, and no fame rewards, and no flourish of triumph salutes. Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields that have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes.

Gavroche had fallen only to rise again; he sat up, a long stream of blood rolled down his face, he raised both arms in air, looked in the direction whence the shot came, and began to sing.

Be serious," said Enjolras. "I am wild," replied Grantaire.

To attempt, to brave, to persist, and persevere, to be faithful to one's self, to wrestle with destiny, to astound the catastrophe by the slight fear which is causes us, now to confront unjust power, again to insult intoxicated victory, to hold firm and withstand -- such is the example which nations need and the light which electrifies them.

He seemed to say to Fate: You wouldn't dare.

Who goes there? At the same time, the click of guns, as they were lowered into position, was heard. Enjolras replied in a haughty and vibrating tone:— The French Revolution!

A quarter of an hour more of this success, and there won't be ten cartridges in the barricade.

Gavroche added: I authorize you to hit 'em a tremendous whack.

Be off with you, or I'll blow up the barricade!

Men had only touched him to bruise him. Every contact with them had been a blow. Never, since his infancy, since the days of his mother, of his sister, had he ever encountered a friendly word and a kindly glance. From suffering to suffering, he had gradually arrived at the conviction that life is a war; and that in this war he was the conquered. He had no other weapon than his hate. He resolved to whet it in the galleys and to bear it away with him when he departed.

Invading armies can be resisted, invading ideas cannot be.

pottery and household utensils down on the soldiers from the roofs; a bad sign; and when this matter was reported to Marshal Soult, Napoleon's old lieutenant grew thoughtful, as he recalled Suchet's saying at Saragossa: "We are lost when the old women empty their pots de chambre on our heads." These

Les galères ! Ah ! oui, plutôt mille fois la mort, plutôt l'échafaud que le bagne, plutôt le néant que l'enfer ; plutôt livrer mon cou au couteau de Guillotin qu'au carcan de la chiourme ! Les galères, juste ciel !

From his very first steps among men, he had felt himself, later on he had seen himself, spewed out, blasted, rejected. Human words were, for him, always a raillery or a malediction. As he grew up, he had found nothing but hatred around him. He had caught the general malevolence. He had picked up the weapon with which he had been wounded.

Taurinum obsessor idem et obsessus

Let us die facing out foes, make them bleed while we can.

I waited for the moment when he would resume his task of blood. The position was a strange one: he had already tried to kill me and failed, to prove that he was white; and now he was going to murder me to show that he was black.

Let's fight, ye gods and little fishes! I've had enough of despotism.

Si l'on n'est plus que mille, eh bien, j'en suis ! Si même Ils ne sont plus que cent, je brave encor Sylla ; S'il en demeure dix, je serai le dixième ; Et s'il n'en reste qu'un, je serai celui-là ! (If we're just a thousand, then, here I am! Even if They're just a hundred, still I face Sylla; If ten still stand, I'll be the tenth; And if there is only one left, I'll be this one!)

Her beauty had always made it easy for her to break rules without reprisal.

Loreda wanted to be angry. What had Jack said to her the first day they met? You have fire in you, kid. Don't let the bastards snuff it out. Something like that. Loreda didn't want to be the kind of woman who suffered in silence. Refused to be.

Elsa heard the message but didn't care, and not caring felt good. Almost exhilarating, in fact. For once, she had not let someone else tell her where she belonged.

You see, Loreda?" Elsa whispered. "They'll hurt the people who threaten their business." It was a long time before Loreda spoke, and when she did, her words were no comfort at all. "Sometimes you have to fight back, Mom.