Quotes About Misery

Idleness, pleasure, what abysses! To do nothing is a dreary course to take, be sure of it. To live idle upon the substance of society! To be useless, that is to say, noxious! This leads straight to the lowest depth of misery.

A soul for a piece of bread. Misery makes the offer; society accepts.

So long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless.

In fact, he who has only beheld the misery of man has seen nothing; the misery of woman is what he must see; he who has seen only the misery of woman has seen nothing; he must see the misery of the child.

On the contrary, as there is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher, everything was given away, so to speak, before it was received, like water on thirsty soil; it was well that money came to him, for he never kept any, and besides he robbed himself.

He who has seen the misery of man only has seen nothing, he must see the misery of woman; he who has seen the misery of woman only has seen nothing, he must see the misery of childhood.

Doing nothing is happiness for children and misery for old men.

I am come to warn you. I am come to impeach your happiness. It is fashioned out of the misery of your neighbour. You have everything, and that is composed of the nothing of others… As for me, I am but a voice. Mankind is a mouth, of which I am the cry. You shall hear me!

Let misery hide itself in silence, otherwise it becomes treason.

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

Misery offers; society accepts

After he had fully determined that the young man was at the bottom of this state of affairs, and that it all came from him, he Jean Valjean, the regenerated man, the man who had laboured so much upon his soul, the man who had made so many efforts to resolve all life, all misery, and all misfortune into love; he looked within himself, and there he saw a spectre, Hatred.

The misery of a child is interesting to a mother, the misery of a young man is interesting to a young woman, the misery of an old man is interesting to nobody. This of all miseries is the coldest.

At the period of his most abject misery, he had observed that young girls turned round when he passed by, and he fled or hid, with death in his soul. He thought that they were staring at him because of his old clothes, and that they were laughing at them; the fact is, that they stared at him because of his grace, and that they dreamed of him.

They are les misérables - the outcasts, the underdogs. And who is to blame? Is it not the most fallen who have most need of charity?

Misery, we repeat, had been good for him. Poverty in youth, when it succeeds, has this magnificent property about it, that it turns the whole will towards effort, and the whole soul towards aspiration.

What is this history of Fantine? It is society purchasing a slave. From whom? From misery. From hunger, cold, isolation, destitution. A dolorous bargain. A soul for a morsel of bread. Misery offers; society accepts.

The whole of progress tends in the direction of solution. Some day we shall be amazed. As the human race mounts upward, the deep layers emerge naturally from the zone of distress. The obliteration of misery will be accomplished by a simple elevation of level.

Injustice had made her sulle, and misery had made her ugly.

Quoi que je fasse, elle est toujours là, cette pensée infernale, comme un spectre de plomb à mes côtés, seule et jalouse, chassant toute distraction, face à face avec moi misérable, et me secouant de ses deux mains de glace quand je veux détourner la tête ou fermer les yeux.

As long as ignorance and misery exist in the world, books like the one you are about to read are, perhaps, not entirely useless

O viaggio implacabile della società umana! O perdite di uomini e di anime lungo il cammino! Oceano nel quale cade tutto ciò che la legge lascia cadere! Funesto allontanarsi di ogni soccorso! O morte mortale! Il mare è l'inesorabile notte sociale dove la pena getta i suoi dannati. Il mare è l'immensa miseria. L'anima, alla deriva tra quei gorghi, può divenire cadavere. Chi la resusciterà?

La suprema miseria porge occasione alle oscenità.

A child's misery is of concern to a mother, a young man's misery is of concern to a young woman, an old man's misery is of concern to nobody.