Quotes from Victor Hugo

O amor é uma criança de seis mil anos, que pode usar de compridas barbas brancas. Matusalém ao pé de Cupido é um fedelho. Há sessenta séculos que o homem e a mulher vencem todos os obstáculos, amando-se. O diabo, que é fino, entrou a odiar o homem, porém, o homem, que ainda é mais fino, entrou a amar a mulher. Deste modo tem conseguido fazer mais bem do que o mal que o diabo lhe tem causado!

The country wails, that may be, but humanity applauds. But is it true that the country does wail? France bleeds, but liberty smiles; and in the presence of liberty's smile, France forgets her wound.

The peculiar property of truth is never to commit excesses. What need has it of exaggeration?

This is what floats up confusedly, pell-mell, for the year 1817, and is now forgotten. History neglects nearly all these particulars, and cannot do otherwise; the infinity would overwhelm it. Nevertheless, these details, which are wrongly called trivial,—there are no trivial facts in humanity, nor little leaves in vegetation,—are useful. It is of the physiognomy of the years that the physiognomy of the centuries is composed.

Sia detto alla sfuggita, il successo è una cosa piuttosto lurida; la sua falsa somiglianza col merito inganna gli uomini. Per la folla, la riuscita ha quasi lo stesso profilo della supremazia. Il successo, sosia della capacità, sa ingannare per bene la storia.

Siete ben bravi a dirmi dove son nato; io non lo so. Non tutti hanno una casa, per venire al mondo in quella; sarebbe troppo comodo.

Open, nevertheless.

Maître Corbeau, sur un dossier perché, Tenait dans son bec une saisie executoire; Maître Renard, par l'odeur alléché, Lui fit à peu près cette histoire: Hé! bonjour! etc.

He did not think he discerned God in this manner of dying; let us say the whole, for these petty contradictions of great hearts must be indicated like the rest:

In times of revolution misery is both cause and effect. The blow which it deals rebounds upon it.

Querer prohibir a la imaginación que vuelva a una idea es lo mismo que prohibir al mar que vuelva a la playa. Al

The Obi and Rigaud were equally impassible, but the negroes appeared terrified at the horrible drama that their general had caused to be enacted before them.

Monsieur Mayor," said the bishop, "that is just it. I am not in the world to care for my life, but for souls.

On the face of this aged queen of our cathedrals, by the side of a wrinkle, one always finds a scar. Tempus edax, homo edacior*; which I should be glad to translate thus: time is blind, man is stupid.      *  Time is a devourer; man, more so.

Tu n'es encor que l'étincelle, Demain tu seras le soleil !

They upheld everything till the day when they overthrew everything. Their instinct was to give a decisive push to everything that tottered. In their eyes, as they had been brought into service on condition that there should be solidity, to waver was to betray them. They were numbers, they were force, they were fear. Hence the daring of baseness.

Speech imprisoned frets to find a vent. To harangue space is an outlet.

Father, you owe my husband affront for affront." The father asked: "Upon which cheek did you receive the blow?" "Upon the left cheek." The father struck the right cheek, and said: "Now you are satisfied. Go and tell your husband that he has struck my daughter, but that I have struck his wife.

My friends, remember this: there is no such thing as a weed and no such thing as a bad man. There are only bad cultivators.

I had the opportunity in this visit of seeing how great a power the master exercises over his slaves, but at the same time I could perceive at what a cost this power was bought; for though at the presence of my uncle all redoubled their efforts, I could perceive that there was as much hatred as terror in the looks that they furtively cast upon him.

Pois a consciência ainda aperta com mais força! Quem quer viver feliz, senhor, não deve escutar a voz do dever, porque, uma vez ouvido torna-se implacável! Parece que nos quer castigar de a escutarmos; mas não, recompensa-nos, porque nos arremessa a um inferno, onde ao nosso lado sentimos Deus! Apenas rasgamos as entranhas, ficamos em paz connosco mesmos!

To speak out aloud when alone is as it were to have a dialogue with the divinity which is within. It was, as is well known, a custom of Socrates; he declaimed to himself. Luther did the same.

These Parisians came, one from Toulouse, another from Limoges, the third from Cahors, and the fourth from Montauban; but they were students; and when one says student, one says Parisian: to study in Paris is to be born in Paris.

il arriva à cette phase de calme où l'on peut écouter.