Quotes from Victor Hugo

He never went out without a book under his arm and he often came home with two.

Claude, saddened and discouraged in his human affections, by all this, had flung himself eagerly into the arms of learning, that sister which, at least does not laugh in your face, and which always pays you, though in money that is sometimes a little hollow, for the attention which you have paid to her. Hence, he became more and more learned, and, at the same time, as a natural consequence, more and more rigid as a priest, more and more sad as a man.

The infinite has being. It is there. If infinity had no self then self would not be. But it is. Therefore it has a self. The self of infinity is God.

Running beer gathers no foam.

This is the shade of difference: the door of the physician should never be shut, the door of the priest should always be open.

Yes, resumed the Bishop, you have come from a very sad place. Listen. There will be more joy in heaven over the tear-bathed face of a repentant sinner than over the white robes of a hundred just men. If you emerge from that sad place with thoughts of hatred and of wrath against mankind, you are deserving of pity; if you emerge with thoughts of good-will and of peace, you are more worthy than any one of us.

What is the cat?" he exclaimed. "It is a corrective. God, having made the mouse, said, 'I've made a blunder.' And he made the cat. The cat is the erratum of the mouse. The mouse, plus the cat, Is the revised and corrected proof of creation.

Être aimé, c'est en effet, sur cette terre où rien n'est complet, une des formes les plus étrangement exquises du bonheur.

Teach those who are ignorant as many things as possible; society is culpable, in that it does not afford instruction gratis; it is responsible for the night which it produces If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.

Sikap hati-hati adalah anak sulung kebijaksanaan.

He was not to perceive that of two men engaged in an action so hideous, he who permits the thing is worse than the man who does the work, because he is the coward!

There are men who dig for gold; [Monseigneur Bienvenu] dug for compassion.

where there are many mouths which talk, and very few heads which think.

To breath the air of Paris preserves the soul.

His tavern sign bore witness to his feats of arms. He had painted it himself, being a Jack-of-all-trades who did everything badly.

Protect the workers, encourage the rich.

Les Miserables is first of all the product of a varied experience of the world, containing the perceptions of an entire life. And this image of reality is also a realistic image. The symbol, as Hugo uses it, does not idealize things; rather, it expresses their spiritual meaning without disguising them.

To err his human, to stroll is Parisian.

People overwhelmed with trouble do not look behind; they know only too well that misfortune follows them.

On s'en va parce qu'on a besoin de distraction et l'on revient parce qu'on a besoin de bonheur.

It is painful to break the sad links to the past

Et ces deux âmes, sÅ"urs tragiques, s'envolèrent ensemble, l'ombre de l'une mêlée à la lumière de l'autre.

After the dazzling orgies in form and color of the eighteenth century, art was put on a diet, and allowed nothing but the straight line. This sort of progress ended in ugliness. Art reduced to a skeleton, was the result. This was the advantage of this kind of wisdom and abstinence; the style was so sober that it became lean.

Certainly, I approve of political opinions, but there are people who do not know where to stop.