Victor Hugo Quotes
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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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The soul does not give itself up to despair until it has exhausted all illusions.
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Progress is not accomplished in one stage.
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Let the one fight for his flag, and the other for his ideal, and let them both imagine that they are fighting for the country; the strife will be colossal.
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I would rather be the head of a fly than the tail of a lion.
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We say and exclaim within ourselves without breaking silence, in a tumult where everything speaks except our mouths. The realities of the soul are none the less real for being invisible and impalpable.
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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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I advance in life, I grow more simple, and I become more and more patriotic for humanity.
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No matter who you are, the thought of so much suffering and degradation must cause you to shudder at the sight of a veil or cassock, those two shrouds of human invention.
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The first proof of charity in a priest, and especially a bishop, is poverty.
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Those who pray always are necessary to those who never pray. In our view, the whole question is in the amount of thought that is mingled with prayer.
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There is a secret drawer in every woman's heart.
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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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Dreaming is happiness. Waiting is life.
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We shall look on crime as a disease, and its physicians shall displace the judges, its hospitals displace the Galleys. Liberty and health shall be alike. We shall pour balm and oil where we formerly applied iron and fire; evil will be treated in charity, instead of in anger. This change will be simple and sublime.
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Kings are for nations in their swaddling-clothes: France has attained her majority.
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Labor is life; thought is light.
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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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What I feel for you seems less of earth and more of a cloudless heaven.
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Art moves. Hence its civilizing power.
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A day will come when a cannon will be exhibited in museums, just as instruments of torture are now, and the people will be astonished that such a thing could have been.
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Everything Changes. The only thing that remains immovable across the centuries and fixes the character of a people is cooking.
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Great buildings, like great mountains, are the work of centuries.
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God is behind everything, but everything hides God.