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284de5d
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To love or to have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life. To love is a consummation.
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Victor Hugo |
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c99ad49
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Nessun limite a Parigi. Nessuna citta ha avuto questa dominazione che dileggiava talvolta coloro ch'essa soggioga: Piacervi o ateniesi! esclamava Alessandro. Parigi fa piu che la legge, fa la moda; e piu che la moda, l'abitudine. Se le piace, puo esser stupida, e talvolta si concede questo lusso, allora l'universo e stupido con lei. Poi Parigi si sveglia, si frega gli occhi e dice: <> e sbotta a ridere in faccia al gener..
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Victor Hugo |
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27e351f
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many mouths which talk, and very few heads which think.
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Victor Hugo |
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c204ea4
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If we are to believe certain oracles of crafty political views, a little revolt is desirable from the point of view of power. System: revolt strengthens those governments which it does not overthrow.
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Victor Hugo |
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f79b606
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He had come to the supreme crossing of good and evil. He had that gloomy intersection beneath his eyes. On this occasion once more, as had happened to him already in other sad vicissitudes, two roads opened out before him, the one tempting, the other alarming. Which was he to take?
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Victor Hugo |
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803e9bf
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Blind is he who will not see!
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Victor Hugo |
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87b0207
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To realize one's dream. To whom is this accorded? There must be elections for this in heaven; we are all candidates, unknown to ourselves; the angels vote.
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Victor Hugo |
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2b8bcb5
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Their own destiny is a far-off thing to them ... One declines, descends, trickles away, even crumbles away, and yet is hardly conscious of it one's self. It always ends, it is true, in an awakening, but the awakening is tardy. In the meantime, it seems as though we held ourselves neutral in the game which is going on between our happiness and our unhappiness. We are the stake, and we look on at the game with indifference.
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Victor Hugo |
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d9ea73b
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Is there anybody here?" asked he, aloud and in a startled voice. Then he continued with a laugh, which was like the laugh of an idiot: "What a fool I am! there cannot be anybody here." There was One; but He who was there was not of such as the human eye can see. He put the candlesticks on the mantel. Alas! all his irresolutions were again upon him. He was no further advanced than when he began. So struggled beneath its anguish this unhappy ..
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Victor Hugo |
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f6f12d7
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The Genesis Of Butterflies The dawn is smiling on the dew that covers The tearful roses; lo, the little lovers That kiss the buds, and all the flutterings In jasmine bloom, and privet, of white wings, That go and come, and fly, and peep and hide, With muffled music, murmured far and wide. Ah, the Spring time, when we think of all the lays That dreamy lovers send to dreamy mays, Of the fond hearts within a billet bound, Of all the soft silk ..
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Victor Hugo |
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0d15a2e
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Hence, that crown is the money of hell.
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Victor Hugo |
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0bf0d09
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Man is not a circle with a single centre; he is an ellipse with a double focus. Facts form one of these, and ideas the other.
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Victor Hugo |
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b6bdb95
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Cosette, by learning that she was beautiful, lost the grace of not knowing it; an exquisite grace, for beauty heightened by artlessness is ineffable, and nothing is so adorable as dazzling innocence, going on her way, and holding in her hand, all unconsciousness, the key of a paradise.
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les-misérables
grace
innocence
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Victor Hugo |
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f2b101b
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Does not this comprehend all, in fact? and what is there left to desire beyond it? A little garden in which to walk, and immensity in which to dream. At one's feet that which can be cultivated and plucked; over head that which one can study and meditate upon: some flowers on earth, and all the stars in the sky.
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Victor Hugo |
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547d8d4
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In all his trials he was sustained and at times even exalted by a secret strength in himself. The soul aids the body and at moments uplifts it. It is the only bird that can endure a cage.
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Victor Hugo |
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f2b9575
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Does human nature thus change utterly and from top to bottom? Can the man created good by God be rendered wicked by man? Can the soul be completely made over by fate, and become evil, fate being evil? Can the heart become misshapen and contract incurable deformities and infirmities under the oppression of a disproportionate unhappiness, as the vertebral column beneath too low a vault? Is there not in every human soul, was there not in the s..
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Victor Hugo |
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558fa6e
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Prosperity argues capacity. Win in the lottery, and behold! you are a clever man. He who triumphs is venerated. Be born with a silver spoon in your mouth! everything lies in that. Be lucky, and you will have all the rest; be happy, and people will think you great. Outside of five or six immense exceptions, which compose the splendor of a century, contemporary admiration is nothing but short-sightedness.
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Victor Hugo |
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8f75bc5
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The poor man shuddered inside, flooded with an angelic bliss; he told himself in a burst of joy that this would last all his life; he
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Victor Hugo |
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c9949d1
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Madame Victurnien sometimes saw her passing, from her window, noticed the distress of "that creature" who, "thanks to her," had been "put back in her proper place," and congratulated herself. The happiness of the evil-minded is black."
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Victor Hugo |
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47b869c
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Therefore," said the Bishop, "I intend to go without escort." "You do not really mean that, Monseigneur!" exclaimed the mayor. "I do mean it so thoroughly that I absolutely refuse any gendarmes, and shall set out in an hour." "Set out?" "Set out." "Alone?" "Alone." "Monseigneur, you will not do that!" "There exists yonder in the mountains," said the Bishop, "a tiny community no bigger than that, which I have not seen for three years. They a..
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Victor Hugo |
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328fb6e
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Once she looked up from her work and was floored by the anxious way her father was looking at her.
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Victor Hugo |
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9711dc8
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The future belongs to hearts even more than it does to minds. Love, that is the only thing that can occupy and fill eternity. In the infinite, the inexhaustible is requisite. Love participates of the soul itself. It is of the same nature. Like it, it is the divine spark; like it, it is incorruptible, indivisible, imperishable. It is a point of fire that exists within us, which is immortal and infinite, which nothing can confine, and which n..
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Victor Hugo |
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678054b
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She went back down to the garden, feeling like a queen, hearing the birds sing--this was in winter--seeing the sky all golden, the sun in the trees, flowers among the shrubs, bewildered, wild, giddy with inexpressible rapture.
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Victor Hugo |
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f6e8a1d
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All this is what men call genius, just as they call a painted face beauty and a richly attired figure majesty. They confound the brilliance of the firmament with the star-shaped footprints of a duck in the mud.
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Victor Hugo |
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2eea492
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A hundred francs," thought Fantine. "But in what trade can one earn a hundred sous a day?" "Come!" said she, "let us sell what is left." The unfortunate girl became a woman of the town."
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Victor Hugo |
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4211ecc
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What is this history of Fantine? It is society purchasing a slave. From whom? From misery. From hunger, cold, isolation, destitution. A dolorous bargain. A soul for a morsel of bread. Misery offers; society accepts.
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Victor Hugo |
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acffda2
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The sacred law of Jesus Christ governs our civilization, but it does not, as yet, permeate it; it is said that slavery has disappeared from European civilization. This is a mistake. It still exists; but it weighs only upon the woman, and it is called prostitution.
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Victor Hugo |
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9bb97d3
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If anyone had said to him, "Would you like to be better off?" he would have replied: "No." If God had said to him: "Would you like heaven itself in exchange?" he would have replied, "I would be the loser."
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Victor Hugo |
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e0ed0b5
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The universe appeared to him like an immense malady; everywhere he felt fever, everywhere he heard the sound of suffering, and, without seeking to solve the enigma, he strove to dress the wound.
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Victor Hugo |
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580258b
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One can no more prevent the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. In the case of the sailor, this is called the tide; in the case of the guilty, it is called remorse. God upheaves the soul as well as the ocean.
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Victor Hugo |
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7572af4
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They appeared very corrupt and very depraved, no doubt, very vile, very odious even; but those who fall without becoming degraded are rare; besides, there is a point where the unfortunate and the infamous unite and are confounded in a single word, a fatal word, the miserable; whose fault is this? And then should not the charity be all the more profound, in proportion as the fall is great?
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Victor Hugo |
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7de8768
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There is a crime commited by the society against the individual,a crime that is commited afresh each day
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Victor Hugo |
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099476e
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People who are overwhelmed with troubles never do look back.They know only too well that misfortune follows in their wake.
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Victor Hugo |
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b932f0c
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At the hour of civilization through which we are now passing, and which is still so sombre, the miserable's name is Man; he is agonizing in all climes, and he is groaning in all languages.
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Victor Hugo |
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579cd08
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A bird alone could have extricated himself from that place.
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les-misérables
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Victor Hugo |
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08bed89
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This humble soul loved, and that was all.
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Victor Hugo |
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6bc4ed3
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What is there that is cheap now? Everything is dear. There is nothing in the world that is cheap except trouble; you can get that for nothing, the trouble of the world!
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Victor Hugo |
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9ce2605
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Animals are nothing else than the figures of our virtues and our vices, straying before our eyes, the visible phantoms of our souls. God shows them to us in order to induce us to reflect. Only since animals are mere shadows, God has not made them capable of education in the full sense of the word; what is the use? On the contrary, our souls being realities and having a 210 goal which is appropriate to them, God has bestowed on them intellig..
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Victor Hugo |
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7f1faae
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In the chaos of sentiments and passions which defend a barricade, there is something of everything; there is bravery, youth, honor, enthusiasm, the ideal, conviction, the eager fury of the gamester, and above all, intervals of hope.
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passion
youth
hope
enthusiasm
les-misérables
honor
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Victor Hugo |
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37f45ec
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He thought of that heroic Colonel Pontmercy . . . who had left upon every field of victory in Europe drops of that same blood which he, Marius, had in his veins, who had grown grey before his time in discipline and in command, who had lived with his sword-belt buckled, his epaulets falling on his breast, his cockade blackened by powder, his forehead wrinkled by the cap, in the barracks, in the camp, in the bivouac, in the ambulance, and who..
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war
heroes
les-misérables
father-and-son
hero
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Victor Hugo |
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117aa01
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He plainly perceived this truth, the basis of his life henceforth, that so long as she should be alive, so long as he should have her with him, he should need nothing except for her, and fear nothing save on her account.
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love
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Victor Hugo |
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5f2fd84
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One does not cross-examine a saint.
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saints
sainthood
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Victor Hugo |
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e0e3d9c
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momentary life has its rights, and is not bound to sacrifice itself constantly to the future.
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Victor Hugo |
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5915459
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This first glance of a soul which does not yet know itself is like the dawn in the sky. It is the awakening of something radiant and unknown. Nothing can express the dangerous chasm of this unlooked-for gleam which suddenly suffuses adorable mysteries, and which is made up of all the innocence of the present, and of all the passion of the future. It is a kind of irresolute lovingness which is revealed by chance, and which is waiting. It is ..
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Victor Hugo |