Quotes from Victor Hugo

The wretchedness of a child interests a mother, the wretchedness of a young man interests a young girl, the wretchedness of an old man interests no one. It is, of all distresses, the coldest.

The book which the reader has under his eye at this moment is, from one end to the other, as a whole and in detail, whatever may be its intermittences, exceptions and faults, the march from evil to good, from the unjust to the just, from night to day, from appetite to conscience, from rottenness to life, from hell to heaven, from nothingness to God. Point of departure: matter; point of arrival: the soul. The hydra at the beginning, the angel at the end." Volume V, Book I, Chapter XX This

Never, even among animals, does the creature born to be a dove change into an osprey. That is only to be seen among men.

Let us have compassion on the chastised. Alas! Who are we ourselves? Who am I who now address you? Who are you who are listening to me? And are you very sure that we have done nothing before we were born? The earth is not devoid of resemblance to a jail. Who knows whether man is not a recaptured offender against divine justice? Look closely at life. It is so made, that everywhere we feel the sense of punishment.

It is a novel constructed like a poem, where each character is only exceptional because if the hyperbolic manner in which he represents generality.

Because things are unpleasant, said Jean Valjean, that is no reason for being unjust toward God.

It will be perceived that he had a peculiar manner of his own of judging things: I suspect that he obtained it from the Gospel.

Our mind is enriched by what we receive, our heart by what we give.

Let us enter equal complaint against stomachs and minds which do not eat. If there is anything more heart-breaking than a body perishing for lack of bread, it is a soul which is dying from hunger for the light.

God must not be judged from appearances. Beneath the gilding of heaven I perceive a poverty-stricken universe. Creation is bankrupt.

That I may carry on what I have begun, that I may do good, that I may be one day a grand and encouraging example that it may be said that there was finally some little happiness resulting from this suffering which I have undergone and this virtue to which I have returned!

He understood how to sit down and hold his peace for long hours beside the man who had lost the wife of his love