Victor Hugo Quotes
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...mothers are often fondest of the child which has caused them the greatest pain.
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Lastly, this threefold poetry flows from three great sources - The Bible, Homer, Shakespeare.... The Bible before the Iliad, the Iliad before Shakespeare.
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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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Religion, Society, and Nature--these are the three struggles of man.
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A shadow is hard to seize by the throat and dash to the ground.
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A wretched woman is more unfortunate than a wretched man.
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God whose gifts in gracious flood Unto all who seek are sent, Only asks you to be good And is content.
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To be a saint is the exception; to be a just person is the rule. Err, stumble, commit sin, but be one of the just.
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Most commonly revolt is born of material circumstances; but insurrection is always a moral phenomenon. Revolt is Masaniello, who led the Neapolitan insurgents in 1647; but insurrection is Spartacus. Insurrection is a thing of the spirit, revolt is a thing of the stomach.
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War can only be qualified by its object, and there is neither foreign war nor civil war, there is only just or unjust war.
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France lost a great novel last night.
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It may be remarked in passing that success is an ugly thing. Men are deceived by its false resemblences to merit.
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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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I refuse the oration of all churches. I ask a prayer of all souls. I believe in God.
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A wedding is not house-keeping.
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Astronomy, that micography of heaven, is the most magnificent of the sciences. ... Astronomy has its clear side and its luminous side; on its clear side it is tinctured with algebra, on its luminous side with poetry.
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What dangers you run, O noble souls! Often, you give your heart, but we take only your body. Your heart is left to you and you look at it in the shadows and shudder.
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Men hate those to whom they have to lie.
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Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.
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There is no distress so complete but that even in the most critical moments the inexplicable sunrise of hope is seen in its depths.
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Let us say it now: to be blind and to be loved, is indeed, upon this earth where nothing is complete, one of the most strangely exquisite forms of happiness.
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Those who always pray are necessary to those who never pray.
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Let us fear the worst, but work with faith; the best will always take care of itself.
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He was at his own request and through his own complicity driven out of all his happinesses one after the other; and he had this sorrow, that after having lost Cosette wholly in one day, he was afterwards obliged to lose her again in detail.