Victor Hugo Quotes
-
The guillotine is the ultimate expression of Law, and its name is vengeance; it is not neutral, nor does it allow us to remain neutral.
-
A criminal remains a criminal whether he uses a convict's suit or a monarch's crown.
-
He had slipped, climbed, rolled, searched, walked, persevered, that is all. Such is the secret of all triumphs.
-
Winter changes into stone the water of heaven and the heart of man.
-
Homère est un des génies qui résolvent ce beau problème de l’art, le plus beau de tous peut-être, la peinture vraie de l’humanité obtenue par le grandissement de l’homme, c’est-à-dire la génération du réel dans l’idéal.
-
Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibres.
-
Who can be sure that Jean Valjean had not been on the verge of losing heart and giving up the struggle? In loving he recovered his strength. But the truth is that he was no less vulnerable than Cosette. He protected her and she sustained him. Thanks to him she could go forward into life, and thanks to her he could continue virtous. He was the child's support and she his mainstay. Sublime, unfathomable marvel of the balance of destiny!
-
He left her. She was dissatisfied with him. He had preferred to incur her anger rather than cause her pain. He had kept all the pain for himself.
-
Every body drags its shadow, and every mind its doubt.
-
The memory of an absent person shines in the deepest recesses of the heart, shining the more brightly the more wholly its object has vanished: a light on the horizon of the despairing, darkened spirit; a star gleaming in our inward night.
-
Those who every morning plan the transactions of the day and follow out that plan carry a thread that will guide them through the labyrinth of the most busy life. The orderly arrangement of their time is like a ray of light which darts itself through all their occupations. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidents, chaos will soon reign.
-
The heart becomes heroic through passion. It is no longer composed of anything but what is pure; it no longer rests upon anything but what is elevated and great.
-
The left-handed are precious; they take places which are inconvenient for the rest.
-
In the domain of art there is no light without heat.
-
La musique...est la vapeur de l’art. Elle est à la poésie ce que la rêverie est à la pensée, ce que le fluide est au liquide, ce que l’océan des nuées est à l’océan des ondes.
-
She might have melted a heart of stone, but nothing can melt a heart of wood.
-
Nobody loves the light like the blind man.
-
Death belongs to God alone; by what right do men touch that unknown thing?
-
L'œil était dans la tombe et regardait Caïn.
-
The English took the eagle and Austrians the eaglet. [Fr., L'Angleterre prit l'aigle, et l'Autriche l'aiglon.]
-
You are adorable, mademoiselle. I study your feet with the microscope and your soul with the telescope.
-
Let us study things that are no more. It is necessary to understand them, if only to avoid them.
-
It is a terrible thing to be happy! How pleased we are with it! How all-sufficient we think it! How, being in possession of the false aim of life, happiness, we forget the true aim, duty!
-
Mettre tout en équilibre, c'est bien; mettre tout en harmonie, c'est mieux.