Quotes from Victor Hugo

Let us be like that unafraid bird Lighted upon a twig that swings Feeling it yield but singing on— For knowing that he has wings!

Let us fear the worst, but work with faith; the best will always take care of itself.

The last resort of kings, the cannonball. The last resort of the people, the paving stone.

Great buildings, like great mountains, are the work of centuries.

No doubt it was necessary to civilize man in relation to man. That work is already advanced and is making progress every day. But man must be civilized also in relation to nature.

The hatred of luxury is not an intelligent hatred. It implies a hatred of arts.

Verse in itself does not constitute poetry. Verse is only an elegant vestment for a beautiful form. Poetry can express itself in prose, but it does so more perfectly under the grace and majesty of verse. It is poetry of soul that inspires noble sentiments and noble actions as well as noble writings.

Work, which makes a man free, and thought, which makes him worthy of freedom.

Thought is the work of the intellect, reverie is its self-indulgence. To substitute day-dreaming for thought is to confuse a poison with a source of nourishment.

The greatest happines of life is the conviction that we are loved-loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labour and an invisible labour.

Excitement is not enjoyment: in calmness lies true pleasure. The most precious wines are sipped, not bolted at a swallow.