Quotes from Victor Hugo

The supreme happiness of life consists in the conviction that one is loved; loved for one's own sake—let us say rather, loved in spite of one's self.

He asked himself whether human society could have the right also to subject its members,on the one hand,to its crazy lack of foresight and,on the other,to its pitiless foresight,and to hold a poor man forever between a lack and an excess-lack of work and excess of punishment

The presence of angels is an announcement of Paradise.

C?ci dragostea e ca un arbore, ea creÈ™te de la sine, îÈ™i înfige r?d?cini adânci în toat? fiinÈ›a noastr? È™i continu? s? înverzeasc? pe o inim? distrus?.

Ensinem o mais possível aos que nada sabem; a sociedade é culpada de não instruir gratuitamente e responderá pela escuridão que provoca. Uma alma na sombra da ignorância comete um pecado? A culpa não é de quem o faz, mas de quem provocou a sombra.

Le ciel était absolument noir, il n'y avait plus d'étoiles, mais évidemment il en voyait une.

Point of departure: matter; point of arrival: the soul.

Vrai ou faux, ce qu'on dit des hommes tient souvent autant de place dans leur vie et surtout dans leur destinée que ce qu'ils font.

One may feel a certain indifference to the death penalty, one may refrain from pronouncing upon it, from saying yes or no, so long as one has not seen a guillotine with one's own eyes: but if one encounters one of them, the shock is violent; one is forced to decide, and to take part for or against. Some

sake of exactness

The sincerity of foulness pleases us, and rests the soul. When one has passed one's time in enduring upon earth the spectacle of the great airs which reasons of state, the oath, political sagacity, human justice, professional probity, the austerities of situation, incorruptible robes all assume, it solaces one to enter a sewer and to behold the mire which befits it.

Se ignora lo que se debe saber, y se sabe lo que se debería ignorar.

To love another person is to see the face of God

What am I to do on this earth? The choice rests with me: suffer or enjoy. Whither will suffering lead me? To nothingness; but I shall have suffered. Whither will enjoyment lead me? To nothingness; but I will have enjoyed myself.

It sometimes happens that, even contrary to principles, even contrary to liberty, equality, and fraternity, even contrary to the universal vote, even contrary to the government, by all for all, from the depths of its anguish, of its discouragements and its destitutions, of its fevers, of its distresses, of its miasmas, of its ignorances, of its darkness, that great and despairing body, the rabble, protests against, and that the populace wages battle against, the people. Beggars

Vi sono cose che non si deve neppure tentare di dipingere: il sole è fra queste.

Me, I'm much more than the master, I am the father.

he was unshakably determined to demand of anyone or anything that wanted to force him to live, whoever and whatever they might be - his grandfather, fate, hell - the restitution of his lost Eden. He did not hide the obstacles from himself.

in circulation

At that time, for the thought written in stone, there existed a privilege perfectly comparable to our present liberty of the press. It was the liberty of architecture.

A quarter of an hour more of this success, and there won't be ten cartridges in the barricade.

El soldado de hierro vale tanto como el duque de hierro.

Revolution cannot really be conquered... If you wish to understand what Revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to understand what Progress is, call it Tomorrow. Tomorrow performs its work irresistibly, and it does it from today.

As for Toussaint, she venerated Jean Valjean and liked everything he did. One