Victor Hugo Quotes
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To gaze into the depths of the sea is, in the imagination, like beholding the vast unknown, and from its most terrible point of view. The submarine gulf is analogous to the realm of night and dreams. There also is sleep, unconsciousness, or at least apparent unconsciousness, of creation. There in the awful silence and darkness, the rude first forms of life, phantomlike, demoniacal, pursue their horrible instincts.
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Dry happiness is like dry bread. We eat, but we do not dine. I wish for the superfluous, for the useless, for the extravagant, for the too much, for that which is not good for anything.
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To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.
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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.
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In love, such a word, whispered, is a mysterious kiss of the soul to the soul.
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God in his harmony has equal ends For cedar that resists and reed that bends; For good it is a woman sometimes rules, Holds in her hand the power, and manners, schools, And laws, and mind; succeeding master proud, With gentle voice and smil.
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...The girls chirped and chatted like uncaged warblers. They were delirious with joy... Intoxications of life’s morning! Enchanted years! The wing of a dragonfly trembles! Oh, reader, whoever you may be, do you have such memories? Have you walked in the underbrush, pushing aside branches for the charming head behind you? Have you slid laughing, down some slope wet with rain, with the woman you loved?
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Progress is the life-style of man.
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What was more needed by this old man who divided the leisure hours of his life, where he had so little leisure, between gardening in the daytime, and contemplation at night? Was not this narrow enclosure, with the sky for a background, enough to enable him to adore God in his most beautiful as well as in his most sublime works? Indeed, is not that all, and what more can be desired? A little garden to walk, and immensity to reflect upon. At his feet something to cultivate and gather; above his head something to study and meditate upon: a few flowers on the earth, and all the stars in the sky.
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The clouds, - the only birds that never sleep.
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She worked in order to live, and presently fell in love, also in order to live, for the heart, too, has its hunger.
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That men saw his mask, but the bishop saw his face. That men saw his life, but the bishop saw his conscience.
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He would give all of his clothes to his servant, admonishing him NOT to return them until he had completed his day's work.
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Need is a low door which, when we must by stern necessity pass through, forces the greatest to bend down the most.
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One cannot be a good historian of the outward, visible world without giving some thought to the hidden, private life of ordinary people; and on the other hand one cannot be a good historian of this inner life without taking into account outward events where these are relevant.
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The wind of revolutions is not tractable.
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Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions.
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Out Milky Way is the dwelling; the nebulae are the city.
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If I were Jesus Christ, I would save Judas.
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Desiring always to be in mourning, he clothed himself with night.
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This child whom we Love, Brings daylight Into our soul.
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Hypocrisy is nothing, in fact, but a horrible hopefulness.
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A little girl without a doll is almost as unhappy, and quite as impossible, as a woman without children." from chapter VIII of Les Miserables.
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The onward march of the human race requires that the heights around it constantly blaze with noble lessons of courage. Deeds of daring dazzle history and form one of man's guiding lights.