Victor Hugo

“When I speak to you about myself, I’m speaking to you about yourself. How is it that you don’t see that?”

“The most ferocious animals are disarmed by caresses to their young”

“L'amour, c'est la bêtise de l'homme et l'esprit de Dieu.”

“La nuit fait des distributions d'essence stellaire aux fleurs endormies.”

“Aucun penseur n'oserait dire que le parfum de l'aubépine est inutile aux constellations.”

“Ne pas voir les gens, cela permet de leur supposer toutes les perfections.”

“Or, donner la grosse cloche en mariage à Quasimodo, c'était donner Juliette à Roméo.”

“Man has a tyrant, ignorance. I voted for the demise of that particular tyrant. That particular tyrant has engendered royalty, which is authority based on falsehood, whereas science is authority based on truth. Man should be governed by science alone.""And conscience," added the bishop. "It's the same thing. Conscience is the quota of innate science we each have inside us.”

“What is fright by night is curiosity by day.”

“Ystäväni, painakaa mieleenne, ettei ole olemassa enempää huonoja kasveja kuin huonoja ihmisiäkään. On vain huonoja viljelijöitä. (Jean Valjean)”

“Sydäntä särkevää oli nähdä tämän pienen lapsiraukan, joka ei ollut vielä kuudenkaan vanha, talvipakkasessa vanhojen rikkinäisten ryysyjensä verhoamana, väristen lakaisevan katua jo ennen päivän koittoa, suunnaton luuta pienissä punaisissa kätösissään ja kyynel silmäkulmassa.”

“Desiring always to be in mourning, he clothed himself with night.”

“And, moreover, when it happens that both are sincere and good, nothing will mix and amalgamate more easily than an old priest and an old soldier. In reality, they are the same kind of man. One has devoted himself to country upon earth, the other to his country in heaven; there is no other difference.”

“He endeavored to collect his thoughts, but did not succeed. At those hours especially when we have sorest need of grasping the sharp realities of life do the threads of though snap off in the brain.”

“That men saw his mask, but the bishop saw his face. That men saw his life, but the bishop saw his conscience.”

“Night and the day, when united,Bring forth the beautiful light.”

“Ah ! Acaba güneş batmadan öleceğim doğru mu? Gerçekten mi? Bu ben miyim? Dışarıdan kulağıma gelen bu çığlıklar, rıhtımda koşuşan şu sevinçli insan kalabalığı, kışlalarında hazırlanan şu jandarmalar, şu siyah giysili rahip, şu kırmızı elbise giymiş adam, bütün bunların hepsi benim için hazırlanıyor! Ölecek olan benim için ! Şu anda burada duran, yaşayan, hareket eden, nefes alıp veren, bütün masalara benzeyen bu masanın önünde oturan ve şu anda başka bir yerde olabilecek ben; dokunan ben, hisseden ben, buruşuk giysili ben!”

“Voyager, c'est naître et mourir à chaque instant.”

“Every blade has two edges; he who wounds with one wounds himself with the other.”

“M. Myriel devait subir le sort de tout nouveau venu dans une petite ville où il y a beaucoup de bouches qui parlent et fort peu de têtes qui pensent.”

“What I feel for you seems less of earth and more of a cloudless heaven.”

“His whole life was now summed up in two words: absolute uncertainty within an impenetrable fog.”

“God knows better than we do what we need.”

“Happiness wishes everybody happy.”

“winter always carries with it something of our sadness; then April came, that daybreak of summer, fresh like every dawn, gay like every childhood; weeping a little sometimes like the infant that it is. Nature in this month has charming gleams which pass from the sky, the clouds, the trees, the fields, and the flowers, into the heart of man.”

“La guerre, c'est la guerre des hommes; la paix c'est la guerre des idées.”

“Le suprême bonheur dans la vie,c'est la conviction qu'on est aimé..”

“La pensée est le labeur de l’intelligence, la rêverie en est la volupté.”

“N'être pas écouté, n'est pas une raison pour se taire.”

“The straight line, a respectable optical illusion which ruins many a man.”

“But secondly you say 'society must exact vengeance, and society must punish'. Wrong on both counts. Vengeance comes from the individual and punishment from God.”

“The merciful precepts of Christ will at last suffuse the Code and it will glow with their radiance. Crime will be considered an illness with its own doctors to replace your judges and its hospitals to replace your prisons. Liberty shall be equated with health. Ointments and oil shall be applied to limbs that were once shackled and branded. Infirmities that once were scourged with anger shall now be bathed with love. The cross in place of the gallows: sublime and yet so simple.”

“You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do no bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.”

“Die Wissenschaft muss mit glatten Wangen begonnen werden und nicht erst mit runzeligen, wenn man in ihr etwas erreichen will.”

“La lumière est dans le livre. Ouvrez le livre tout grand. Laissez-le rayonner, laissez-le faire.”

“M. Myriel had to undergo the fate of every newcomer in a little town, where there are many mouths which talk, and very few heads which think.”

“Her soul trembled on her lips like a drop of dew on a flower.”

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

“The most powerful symptom of love is a tenderness which becomes at times almost insupportable.”

“When two mouths, made sacred by love, draw near to each other to create, it is impossible, that above that ineffable kiss there should not be a thrill in the immense mystery of the stars.”

“El futuro tiene muchos nombres. Para los débiles es lo inalcanzable. Para los temerosos, lo desconocido. Para los valientes es la oportunidad”

“Be happy without picking flaws.”

“Do not economize on the hymeneal rites; do not prune them of their splendor, nor split farthings on the day when you are radiant. A wedding is not house-keeping.”

“All the human and animal manure which the world wastes, if returned to the land, instead of being thrown into the sea, would suffice to nourish the world.”

“Genuflection before the idol or the dollar destroys the muscles which walk and the will that moves.”

“Let us admit, without bitterness, that the individual has his distinct interests and can, without felony, stipulate for those interests and defend them. The present has its pardonable amount of egotism; momentary life has its claims, and cannot be expected to sacrifice itself incessantly to the future. The generation which is in its turn passing over the earth is not forced to abridge its life for the sake of the generations, its equals after all, whose turn shall come later on.”

“A man without a woman is like a pistol without a trigger; it is the woman who makes the man go off.”

“Equality, citizens, is not the whole of society on a level, a society of tall blades of grass and small oaks, or a number of entangled jealousies. It is, legally speaking, every aptitude having the same opportunity for a career; politically all consciences having the same right. Equality has an organ, gratuitous and compulsory education. We must begin with the right to the alphabet.”

“Common right is nought but the protection of all radiating over the right of each. This protection of all is termed Fraternity. The point of intersection of all these aggregated sovereignties is called Society. This intersection being a junction, this point is a knot. Hence comes what is called the social tie.”

“From a political point of view, there is but one principle, the sovereignty of man over himself. This sovereignty of myself over myself is called Liberty”