Quotes from Victor Hugo

Indigestion was designed by God to impose morality on stomachs. Our entire lives explained in one French novel.

Certainly she was wonderfully beautiful. All that could be said of her that was in any sense critical was that there seemed to be a contradiction between the look in her eyes, which tended to melancholy, and the brightness of her smile. This had a somewhat disconcerting effect, so that at moments her charming face was puzzling without ceasing to be delightful.

Cuando le ocurría alguna vez, porque, ¿a quién no le ocurre? Decir: -¡Oh. si fuese rico!- no lo decía nunca echando el lente a una joven bonita, como el señor Guillenormand, sino contemplando un libro.

No ver a las personas es una cosa que permite suponer en ellas todas las perfecciones.

With the exercise of a little care, the nettle could be made useful; it is neglected and it becomes hurtful. It is exterminated. How many men resemble the nettle! He added, after a pause: Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.

To shape the soul of a young girl, all the nuns in the world are not equal to one mother.

weep for them all," the bishop said. "Equally," G——— exclaimed, "and if the balance tips, let it be on the side of the people: They have suffered longer.

Indigestion was designed by God to impose morality on stomachs.

Gans and Savigny controversy; he took Savigny, he took Gans, read

Il dort. Quoique le sort fut pour lui bien etrange, Il vivait. Il mourut quand il n'eut plus son ange. La chose simplement d'elle-meme arriva, Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s'en va.[71]

In opposition to this celestial tenderness, he summoned up pride, the fortress of evil in man.

Alas! What are all these lives driven willy-nilly? Where are they going? Why are they like this? He who knows the answer to that, sees the darkness as a whole. He is alone. His name is God.

The galleys make the convict what he is; reflect upon that, if you please. Before going to the galleys, I was a poor peasant, with very little intelligence, a sort of idiot; the galleys wrought a change in me. I was stupid; I became vicious: I was a block of wood; I became a firebrand. Later on, indulgence and kindness saved me, as severity had ruined me

The animal is ignorant of the fact that he knows. The man is aware of the fact that he is ignorant.

He doubted everything with an air of superiority--a great power in the eyes of the weak.

If you wish to gain an idea of what revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to acquire an idea of the nature of progress, call it To-morrow. To-morrow fulfils its work irresistibly, and it is already fulfilling it to-day. It

In the first place, the direct creation of words. Therein lies the mystery of tongues. To paint with words, which contains figures one knows not how or why, is the primitive foundation of all human languages, what may be called their granite.

Youth, even in its sorrows, always possesses its own peculiar radiance.

What is Waterloo? A victory? No. The winning number in the lottery.

Se per caso capiva che la sua infermità si tradisse per qualche apostrofe incoerente o per qualche domanda inintelligibile, la cosa passava per profondità presso alcuni, per imbecillità presso altri. In ambedue i casi l'onore della magistratura era salvo, perchè un giudice può essere benissimo profondo o imbecille a suo piacere, ma sordo no.

one speaks to one's self, talks to one's self, exclaims to one's self without breaking the external silence; there is a great tumult; everything about us talks except the mouth. The realities of the soul are none the less realities because they are not visible and palpable.

The peculiarity of a language which is desirous of saying all yet concealing all is that it is rich in figures. Metaphor is an enigma, wherein the thief who is plotting a stroke, the prisoner who is arranging an escape, take refuge.

Je vois de la lumière neuve (I see a new light)

One can perish from being undermined as well as from being struck by lightning.