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Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo Quotes

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Famous Victor Hugo Quotes

“Love would never be a promise of a rose garden unless it is showered with light of faith, water of sincerity and air of passion. Sometimes we make love with our eyes. Sometimes we make love with our hands. Sometimes we make love with our bodies. Always we make love with our hearts. If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you've made me smile, the entire evening sky would be in the palm of my hand. To love another person is to see the face of God.”

IfsHeartPersonsMadeSometimesBodyHandsLightWould BeEyeFacesPassionStarsWaterAirSkyPromiseGardenRoseEveningIf I CouldSincerityMaking LovePalmsRose GardenEvening Sky
Author:Victor Hugo
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“In Shakespeare the birds sing, the bushes are clothed with green, hearts love, souls suffer, the cloud wanders, it is hot, it is cold, night falls, time passes, forests and multitudes speak, the vast eternal dream hovers over all. Sap and blood, all forms of the multiple reality, actions and ideas, man and humanity, the living and the life, solitudes, cities, religions, diamonds and pearls, dung-hills and charnelhouses, the ebb and flow of beings, the steps of comers and goers, all, all are on Shakespeare and in Shakespeare.”

MenHeartIdeasSoulDreamRealityActionFormNightSufferingHumanityFallSpeakCitiesStepsBloodColdSolitudeEternalBirdFlowHotGreenCloudsForestsWanderHillsDiamondMultipleMultitudesPearlsHeart LoveTime PassesSapEbb And FlowCold NightDiamonds And Pearls
Book:William Shakespeare
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“Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart. The nearer I approach the end, the plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds which invite me. . . . For half a century I have been writing thoughts in prose, verse, history, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode, and song. I have tried them all, but I feel I have not said a thousandth part of that which is within me. When I go down to the grave, I can say "I have finished my day's work," but I cannot say "I have finished my life's work."”

WorldFeelsWritingHeartHas BeensSaidI CanEndsRomanceSongHalfCenturyMy HeartDramaEternalApproachSpringTraditionWinterFinishedGravesProseSatireImmortalInvitesVersesSymphonyHalf A CenturyOdes
Author:Victor Hugo
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“He caught her, she fell, he caught her in his arms, he held her tightly unconscious of what he was doing. He held her up, though tottering himself. He felt as if his head were filled with smoke; flashes of light slipped through his eyelids; his thoughts vanished; it seemed to him that he was performing a religious act, and that he was committing a profanation. Moreover, he did not feel one passionate desire for this ravishing woman, whose form he felt against his heart. He was lost in love.”

IfsFeelsHeartLightFormDesireLostFeltReligiousArmsFilledPassionateCaughtSmokePerformingUnconsciousLost LoveFlashEyelidsPassionate Desire
Author:Victor Hugo
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“Can human nature ever be wholly and radically transformed? Can the man whom God made good be made wicked by man? Can the soul be reshaped in its entirety by destiny and made evil because destiny is evil? Can the heart become misshapen and afflicted with ugly, incurable deformities under disproportionate misfortune, like a spinal column bent beneath a too low roof?”

MenHumansHeartMadeSoulEvilDestinyHuman NatureLowsUglyWickedMisfortunesTransformedRoofBentColumnsEntiretyDeformity
Author:Victor Hugo
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“Love has no middle term; either it destroys, or it saves. All human destiny is this dilemma. This dilemma, destruction or salvation, no fate proposes more inexorably than love. Love is life, if it is not death. Cradle; coffin, too. The same sentiment says yes and no in the human heart. Of all the things God has made, the human heart is the one that sheds most light, and alas! most night.”

IfsHumansHeartMadeLightNightTermLove IsDestinyFateMiddleDestructionSalvationSentimentsShedHuman HeartAlasProposeCradleDilemmaCoffinsLove Is LifeYes And No
Book:Les Misérables
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“His universal compassion was due less to natural instinct, than to a profound conviction, a sum of thoughts that in the course of living had filtered through to his heart: for in the nature of man, as in rock, there may be channels hollowed by the dropping of water, and these can never be destroyed.”

MenHeartMayCoursesWaterNaturalCompassionRocksUniversalInstinctProfoundConvictionDuesDestroyedDroppingNature Of ManNatural Instinct
Book:Les Misérables
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“Slowly he took out the clothes in which, ten years beforem Cosette had left Montfermeil; first the little dress, then the black scarf, then the great heavy child's shoes Cosette could still almost have worn, so small was her foot, then the vest of very thich fustian, then the knitted petticoat, the the apron with pockets, then the wool stockings.... Then his venerable white head fell on the bed, this old stoical heart broke, his face was swallowed up, so to speak, in Cosette's clothes, and anybody who had passed along the staircase at that moment would have heard irrepressible sobbing.”

YearsFirstsHeartChildrenLittlesStillsMomentsFacesLeftSpeakBlackWhiteHeardFeetBedTenClothesDressesShoesHeavyBrokePocketsThat MomentWornHeart BrokeWoolSobbingStockingsScarvesVestsStaircasesApronsIrrepressibleCosette
Author:Victor Hugo
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“I believe that pity is a law like justice, and that kindness is a duty like uprightness. That which is weak has a right to the kindness and pity of that which is strong. In the relations of man with the animals...there is a great ethic, scarcely perceived as yet, which will at length break through into the light, and which will be the corollary and the complement to humans ethics. Are there not here unsounded depths for the thinker? Is one to think oneself mad because one has the sentiment of universal pity in one's heart?”

ThinkingMenBelieveHumansHeartLightLawStrongI BelieveJusticeAnimalBreakKindnessDutyEthicsWeakUniversalRelationMadDepthOneselfPityLengthSentimentsThinkerBreak ThroughComplementAnimal EthicsUprightness
Author:Victor Hugo
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“Justice has its anger, my lord Bishop, and the wrath of justice is an element of progress. Whatever else may be said of it, the French Revolution was the greatest step forward by mankind since the coming of Christ. It was unfinished, I agree, but still it was sublime. It released the untapped springs of society; it softened hearts, appeased, tranquilized, enlightened, and set flowing through the world the tides of civilization. It was good. The French Revolution was the anointing of humanity.”

WorldHeartMaySaidStillsHumanityChristJusticeLordStepsProgressMankindRevolutionCivilizationElementsSpringAgreeEnlightenedTidesSublimeWrathBishopsUnfinishedSteps ForwardFrench RevolutionAnointing
Book:Les Misérables
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“Who can be sure that Jean Valjean had not been on the verge of losing heart and giving up the struggle? In loving he recovered his strength. But the truth is that he was no less vulnerable than Cosette. He protected her and she sustained him. Thanks to him she could go forward into life, and thanks to her he could continue virtous. He was the child's support and she his mainstay. Sublime, unfathomable marvel of the balance of destiny!”

GivingHeartChildrenDestinySupportStruggleBalanceTruth IsGiving UpLosingThanksVulnerableProtectedSublimeLoving LifeVergeUnfathomableCosetteJean ValjeanThanks To Him
Author:Victor Hugo
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“They adored each other; but still the permanent and the immutable subsist. We may love and laugh, pout, clasp hands, smile, and exchange endearments, but that does not affect eternity. Two lovers hide in the dusk of evening, amid flowers and the twittering of birds, and enchant each other with their hearts shinning in their eyes; but the stars in their course still circle through infinite space.”

HeartMayDoeStillsTwoHandsEyeCoursesStarsSpaceLaughingFlowerLoversBirdEternityInfiniteCirclesEveningPermanentDuskEndearmentInfinite SpaceTwo Lovers
Book:Les Misérables
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“In winter there is no heat, no light, no noon, evening touches morning, there is fog, and mist, the window is frosted, and you cannot see clearly. The sky is but the mouth of a cave. The whole day is the cave.... Frightful season! Winter changes into stone the water of heaven and the heart of man.”

MenHeartWholeLightHeavenWaterMorningSkyMouthsStonesWindowSeasonsWinterEveningHeatFogCavesMistNoon
Book:Les Misérables: Fantine
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