“Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.”

“His mind could do without faith, but his heart could not do without friendship.”

“I didn't believe it could be so monstrous. It's wrong to be so absorbed in divine law as not to perceive human law. Death belongs to God alone. By what right do men tough that unknown thing?”

“God is behind everything, but everything hides God. Things are black, creatures are opaque. To love a being is to render that being transparent.”

“Thus those two beings, so exclusively and touchingly devoted, who had lived so long for each other alone, came to suffer side by side, each through the other, without ever speaking of the matter, without reproaches, each wearing a smile.”

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

“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.”