Victor Hugo Quotes
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I represent a party which does not yet exist: the party Revolution-Civilization. This party will make the twentieth century. There will issue from it first the United States of Europe, then the United States of the World.
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The jostling of young minds against each other has this wonderful attribute, that one can never foresee the spark, nor predict the flash. What will spring up in a moment? Nobody knows.
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Que l'avenir soit un orient au lieu d'être un couchant, c'est la consolation de l'homme.
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Her soul trembled on her lips like a drop of dew on a flower.
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Wisdom is the health of the soul.
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So a voice in the mountain is enough to let loose an avalanche. A word too much may be followed by a caving in. If the word had not been spoken, it would not have happened.
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Let us have compassion for those under chastisement. Alas, who are we ourselves? Who am I and who are you? Whence do we come and is it quite certain that we did nothing before we were born? This earth is not without some resemblance to a gaol. Who knows but that man is a victim of divine justice? Look closely at life. It is so constituted that one senses punishment everywhere.
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The most excellent symbol of the people is the paving stone. One walks on it until it falls on one's head.
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I'd like a drink. I desire to forget life. Life is a hideous invention by somebody I don't know. It doesn't last, and it's good for nothing. You break your neck simply living.
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History has its truth; and so has legend hers.
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There is no rapture in the love which is prompted by esteem; such affection is lasting, not passionate.
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...But listen, there will be more joy in heaven over the tears of a repentant sinner than over the white robes of a hundred just men.
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The beginning as well as the end of all his thoughts was hatred of human law, that hatred which, if it be not checked in its growth by some providential event, becomes, in a certain time, hatred of society, then hatred of the human race, and then hatred of creation, and reveals itself by a vague and incessant desire to injure some living being, it matters not who.
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Poetry contains philosophy as the soul contains reason.
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Nature is pitiless; she never withdraws her flowers, her music, her fragrance, and her sunlight from before human cruelty or suffering.
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...mothers are often fondest of the child which has caused them the greatest pain.
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Table talk and Lovers' talk equally elude the grasp; Lovers' talk is clouds, table talk is smoke.
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Reason is intelligence taking exercise. Imagination is intelligence with an erection.
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We would be ashamed of our best behavior if the people knew the motives of our behaving so.
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Phenomena intersect; to see but one is to see nothing.
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Do not ask the name of the person who seeks a bed for the night. He who is reluctant to give his name is the one who most needs shelter.
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Though one believes in nothing, there are moments in life when one accepts the religion of the temple nearest at hand.
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Dieu s'est fait homme; soit. Le diable s'est fait femme!
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He had, they said, tasted in succession all the apples of the tree of knowledge, and, whether from hunger or disgust, had ended by tasting the forbidden fruit.