Victor Hugo Quotes
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Now, one cannot read nonsense with impunity.
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There are people who observe the rules of honor as one observes the stars, from a great distance.
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There are many tongues to talk, and but few heads to think.
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He saw before him two roads, both equally straight ; but he saw two; and that terrified him — him, who had never in his life known but one straight line. And, bitter anguish, these two roads were contradictory.
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There is suffering in the light; in excess it burns. Flame is hostile to the wing. To burn and yet to fly, this is the miracle of genius.
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Give to a being the useless, and deprive him of the needful, and you have the gamin.
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Nothing is more imminent than the impossible . . . what we must always foresee is the unforeseen.
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It is often our best friends who throw us down.
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Nothing can be sadder or more profound than to see a thousand things for the first and last time.
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The sewer is the conscience of the city.
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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.
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To rove about, musing, that is to say loitering, is, for a philosopher, a good way of spending time.
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The aim of art is almost divine: to bring to life again if it is writing history, to create if it is writing poetry.
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Between the government which does evil and the people who accept it - there is a certain shameful solidarity.
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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.
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During a wise man's whole life, his destiny holds his philosophy in a state of siege.
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God put in man thought; society, action; nature, revery.
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The transept belfry and the two towers were to him three great cages, the birds in which, taught by him, would sing for him alone. Yet it was these same bells which had made him deaf; but mothers are often fondest of the child who has made them suffer most.
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"Animals are happy," said the queen. "They run no risk of going to hell." "They are there already," replied Josiana.
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So your desire is to do nothing? Well, you shall not have a week, a day, an hour, free from oppression. You shall not be able to lift anything without agony. Every passing minute will make your muscles crack. What is feather to others will be a rock to you. The simplest things will become difficult. Life will become monstrous about you. To come, to go, to breathe, will be so many terrible tasks for you. Your lungs will feel like a hundred-pound weight.
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Joie est mon caractere, C'est la faute a Voltaire; Misere est mon trousseau C'est la faute a Rousseau. [Joy is my character, 'Tis the fault of Voltaire; Misery is my trousseau 'Tis the fault of Rousseau.] - Gavroche
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Sire, you are looking at a plain man, and I am looking at a great man. Each of us may benefit.
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From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.
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Nothing is more true, more real, than the primeval magnetic disturbances that two souls may communicate to one another, through the tiny sparks of a moment's glance.