Quotes from Victor Hugo

When liberty returns, I will return.

Never laugh at those who suffer; suffer sometimes those who laugh.

It is by suffering that human beings become angels.

The ox suffers, the cart complains.

A society that admits misery, a humanity that admits war, seem to me an inferior society and a debased humanity; it is a higher society and a more elevated humanity at which I am aiming - a society without kings, a humanity without barriers.

No one can keep a secret better than a child.

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather in spite of ourselves.

Rhyme, that enslaved queen, that supreme charm of our poetry, that creator of our meter.

Style is the substance of the subject called unceasingly to the surface.

If you want to civilize a man, begin with his grandmother.

Men are still men. The despot's wickedness Comes of ill teaching, and of power's excess,-- Comes of the purple he from childhood wears, Slaves would be tyrants if the chance were theirs.

Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?

The miserable's name is Man; he is agonizing in all climes, and he is groaning in all languages.

God has bestowed two gifts on man: hope and ignorance. Ignorance is the better of the two.

Whom man kills, him God restoreth to life.

If you would civilize a man, begin with his grandmother.

No man is more unhappy than the one who is never in adversity; the greatest affliction of life is never to be afflicted.

There are no weeds, and no worthless men. There are only bad farmers.

A wretched woman is more unfortunate than a wretched man.

To rise at six, to dine at ten, To sup at six, to sleep at ten, Makes a man live for ten times ten.

What is said about men often has as much influence upon their lives, and especially upon their destinies, as what they do.

A one-eyed man is much more incomplete than a blind man, for he knows what it is that's lacking.

...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.

True or false, that which is said of men often occupies as important a place in their lives, and above all in their destinies, as that which they do.