Victor Hugo Quotes
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To die for lack of love is horrible. The asphyxia of the soul.
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I'm not in the world to guard my own life, but to guard souls.
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[T]he small is great, the great is small; all is in equilibrium in necessity.
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To be wicked does not insure prosperity - for the inn did not succeed well.
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In my old age there is a coming into flower. My body wanes; my mind waxes.
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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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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.
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There are, as we know, powerful and illustrious atheists. At bottom, led back to the truth by their very force, they are not absolutely sure that they are atheists; it is with them only a question of definition, and in any case, if they do not believe in God, being great minds, they prove God.
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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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Philosophy is the microscope of thought. Everything desires to flee from it, but nothing escapes it.
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It is God who makes woman beautiful, it is the devil who makes her pretty.
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The hatred of luxury is not an intelligent hatred. It implies a hatred of arts.
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Those who always pray are necessary to those who never pray.
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I have examined the death penalty under each of its two aspects: as a direct action, and as an indirect one. What does it come down to? Nothing but something horrible and useless, nothing but a way of shedding blood that is called a crime when an individual commits it, but is sadly called "justice" when society brings it about. Make no mistake, you lawmakers and judges, in the eyes of God as in those of conscience, what is a crime when individuals do it is no less an offense when society commits the deed.
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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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There is a spectacle more grand than the sea; it is heaven; there is a spectacle more grand than heaven; it is the conscience.
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Loving is half of believing.
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There is in every village a torch - the teacher; and an extinguisher - the priest.
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What is fright by night is curiosity by day.
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When I speak to you about myself, I am speaking to you about yourself. How is it you don't see that?
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It is the essence of truth that it is never excessive. Why should it exaggerate? There is that which should be destroyed and that which should be simply illuminated and studied. How great is the force of benevolent and searching examination! We must not resort to the flame where only light is required.
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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.
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Often the losing of a battle leads to the winning of progress. Less glory but greater liberty: the drum is silent and the voices of reason can be heard.
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God has set his intentions in the flowers, in the dawn, in the spring, it is his will that we should love.