“Do not ask the name of the person who asks you for a bed for a night. He whose name is a burden to him needs shelter more than any one.”

“You need not tell me who you are. This is not my house; it is the house of Christ. It does not ask any comer whether he has a name but whether he has an affliction.”

“What more could he need, this old man whose little leisure was divided between day-time gardening and night-time contemplation? Was not that narrow space with the sky its ceiling room enough for the worship of God in the most delicate of his works and in the most sublime? A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in -what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”

“If you ask the great city, ‘Who is this person?,’ she will answer, ‘He is my child.”

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in--what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”

“One day—when the emperor had come to call on his uncle the cardinal—our worthy priest happened to be waiting as his Majesty went by. Noticing that the old man looked at him with a certain curiosity, Napoleon turned around and said brusquely, ‘Who is this good man looking at me?’‘Sire,’ replied M. Myriel, “you are looking at a good man, and I at a great one. May we both be the better for it.”That evening the emperor asked the cardinal the priest’s name, Still later, M. Myriel was totally surprised to learn he had been appointed Bishop of Digne.”

“One day of happiness is worth more than a lifetime of sorrow .... Under ordinary circumstances, jealousy is a suspicion to the person who excites it and degrading to the person who indulges it.”