Victor Hugo Quotes
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In the opera we call love, the libretto is almost nothing.
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Dear God! how beauty varies in nature and art. In a woman the flesh must be like marble; in a statue the marble must be like flesh.
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Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.
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When a man understands the art of seeing, he can trace the spirit of an age and the features of a king even in the knocker on a door.
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One believes others will do what he will do to himself.
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Taste is the common sense of genius.
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It is by suffering that human beings become angels.
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Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.
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By putting forward the hands of the clock you shall not advance the hour.
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Because one doesn't like the way things are is no reason to be unjust towards God.
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Fashions have done more harm than revolutions.
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The animal is ignorant of the fact that he knows. The man is aware of the fact that he is ignorant.
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Separated lovers cheat absence by a thousand fancies which have their own reality. They are prevented from seeing one another and they cannot write; nevertheless they find countless mysterious ways of corresponding, by sending each other the song of birds, the scent of flowers, the laughter of children.
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Hell is an outrage on humanity. When you tell me that your deity made you in his image, I reply that he must have been very ugly.
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Never had the sky been more studded with stars and more charming, the trees more trembling, the odor of the grass more penetrating; never had the birds fallen asleep among the leaves with a sweeter noise; never had all the harmonies of universal serenity responded more thoroughly to the inward music of love; never had Marius been more captivated, more happy, more ecstatic.
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A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.
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Where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incident, chaos will soon reign.
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In this world, which is so plainly the antechamber of another, there are no happy men. The true division of humanity is between those who live in light and those who live in darkness. Our aim must be to diminish the number of the latter and increase the number of the former. That is why we demand education and knowledge.
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One sometimes says: 'He killed himself because he was bored with life.' One ought rather to say: 'He killed himself because he was bored by lack of life.'
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I am a soul. I know well that what I shall render up to the grave is not myself. That which is myself will go elsewhere. Earth, thou art not my abyss!
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There is a sacred horror about everything grand. It is easy to admire mediocrity and hills; but whatever is too lofty, a genius as well as a mountain, an assembly as well as a masterpiece, seen too near, is appalling.
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It is most pleasant to commit a just action which is disagreeable to someone whom one does not like.
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Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
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There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees.