Quotes from Victor Hugo

Man lives by affirmation even more than he does by bread. a

I see black light (his last words)

So long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Miserables cannot fail to be of use.

A little girl without a doll is almost as unhappy, and quite as impossible, as a woman without children.

Another story must begin!

At the moment when her eyes closed, when all feeling vanished in her, she thought that she felt a touch of fire imprinted on her lips, a kiss more burning than the red-hot iron of the executioner.

Every day has its great grief or its small anxiety. ... One cloud is dispelled, another forms. There is hardly one day in a hundred of real joy and bright sunshine.

He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.

He loved books, those undemanding but faithful friends.

These two beings, who had loved each other so exclusively, and with so touching a love, and who had lived so long for each other, were now suffering beside one another and through one another; without speaking of it, without harsh feeling, and smiling all the while.

A smile is the same as sunshine; it banishes winter from the human countenance.

Every blade has two edges; he who wounds with one wounds himself with the other.

Children at once accept joy and happiness with quick familiarity, being themselves naturally all happiness and joy.

Whether true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence on their lives, and particularly on their destinies, as what they do.

Nature is pitiless; she never withdraws her flowers, her music, her fragrance, and her sunlight from before human cruelty or suffering.

People weighed down with troubles do not look back; they know only too well that misfortune stalks them.

It is not enough to be happy, one must be content.

Be serious," said Enjolras. "I am wild," replied Grantaire.

In joined hands there is still some token of hope, in the clinched fist none.

by making himself a priest made himself a demon.

Grantaire, earthbound in doubt, loved to watch Enjolras soaring in the upper air of faith. He needed Enjolras. Without being fully aware of it, or seeking to account for it himself, he was charmed by that chaste, upright, inflexible and candid nature.

We must never fear robbers or murderers. They are dangers from outside, small dangers. It is ourselves we have to fear. Prejudice is the real robber, vice the real murderer. Why should we be troubled by a threat to our person or our pocket? What we have to beware of is the threat to our souls'.

Be a bird perched on a frail branch that she feels bending beneath her, still she sings away all the same, knowing she has wings.

Ah, cried Gavroche, what does this mean? It rains again! ...If this continues, I withdraw my subscription.