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Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo Quotes

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Famous Victor Hugo Quotes

“The eye of a man should be still more reverent before the rising of a young maiden than before the rising of a star. The possibility of touch should increase respect. The down of the peach, the dust of the plum, the radiated crystal of snow, the butterfly’s wing powdered with feathers, are gross things beside that chastity that does not even know it is chaste. The young maiden is only the glimmer of a dream and is not yet statue. Her alcove is hidden in the shadows of the ideal. The indiscreet touch of the eye desecrates this dim penumbra. Here, to gaze, is to profane.”

KnowsMenShouldDoeStillsDreamEyeYoungStarsPossibilityShadowIdealsIncreaseWingsSnowDustRisingButterflyFeathersGrossStatuesCrystalsChastityMaidensPeachesProfaneChastePlums
Book:Les Misérables
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“Each of our passions, even love, has a stomach that must not be overloaded. We must in everything write the word 'finis' in time; we must restrain ourselves, when it becomes urgent; we must draw the bolt on the appetite, play a fantasia on the violin, then break the strings with our own hand. The Wise man is he who knows when and how to stop.”

KnowsMenWritingPlayHandsPassionBreakWiseDrawsStringsStomachAppetiteUrgentViolinBoltsFantasiaOverloaded
Book:Les Miserables Volume One
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“A benevolent malefactor, merciful, gentle, helpful, clement, a convict, returning good for evil, giving back pardon for hatred, preferring pity to vengeance, preferring to ruin himself rather than to ruin his enemy, saving him who had smitten him, kneeling on the heights of virtue, more nearly akin to an angel than to a man. Javert was constrained to admit to himself that this monster existed. Things could not go on in this manner.”

MenGivingEvilEnemyVirtueGoes OnAngelHatredMonstersPityRuinsSavingGentleHeightHelpfulVengeanceGiving BackPardonMercifulBenevolentConvictsKneelingSmitten
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Victor Hugo (Illustrated)
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“In this way, his unhappy soul struggled with its anguish. Eighteen hundred years before this unfortunate man, the mysterious Being, in whom all the sanctities and all the sufferings of humanity come together, He too, while the olive trees trembled in the fierce breath of the Infinite, had brushed away the fearful cup that appeared before him, streaming with shadow and running over with darkness, in the star-filled depths. (pg. 236)”

MenWayYearsSoulRunningTogetherSufferingHumanityStarsDarknessTreeHundredShadowInfiniteBreathsFilledDepthUnhappyMysteriousCupsFearfulFierceUnfortunateAnguishEighteenSanctityOlivesStreamingOlive Trees
Author:Victor Hugo
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“Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man.... Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!”

MenGivingSoulUseSpiritEvilDarkForgetHonestBrotherYour SoulMy BrotherBuyingSilverNever ForgetHonest ManPerditionDark ThoughtsJean Valjean
Book:Les Misérables
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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?”

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Author:Victor Hugo
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“Everybody has noticed the way cats stop and loiter in a half-open door. Hasn't everyone said to a cat: For heavens sake why don't you come in? With opportunity half-open in front of them, there are men who have a similar tendency to remain undecided between two solutions, at the risk of being crushed by fate abruptly closing the opportunity. The overprudent, cats as they are, and because they are cats, sometimes run more danger than the bold”

MenWaySaidTwoSometimesRunningOpportunityHeavenHalfFateRiskDoorsFrontsDangerSolutionsCatSakeTendenciesClosingCrushedUndecided
Book:Les Misérables
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“The poor man shuddered, overflowed with an angelic joy; he declared in his transport that this would last through life; he said to himself that he really had not suffered enough to deserve such radiant happiness, and he thanked God, in the depths of his soul, for having permitted that he, a miserable man, should be so loved by this innocent being.”

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Author:Victor Hugo
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“Do not forget, do not ever forget, that you have promised me to use the money to make yourself an honest man.' Valjean, who did not recall having made any promise, was silent. The bishop had spoken the words slowly and deliberately. He concluded with a solemn emphasis: Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to what is evil but to what is good. I have bought your soul to save it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.”

MenGivingMadeSoulUseSpiritEvilBlackForgetHonestBrotherPromiseSilentYour SoulMy BrotherRecallsEmphasisSolemnBishopsHonest ManPerditionJean Valjean
Author:Victor Hugo
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“The fact is that the beautiful, humanly speaking, is merely form considered in its simplest aspect, in its most perfect symmetry, in its most entire harmony with our make-up. Thus the ensemble that it offers us is always complete, but restricted like ourselves. What we call the ugly, on the contrary, is a detail of a great whole which eludes us, and which is in harmony, not with man but with all creation. That is why it constantly presents itself to us in new but incomplete aspects.”

MenWholeFactsBeautifulFormPerfectCreationOffersAspectHarmonyDetailsUglyContraryMakeupSimplestIncompleteSymmetryEnsembleCompletenessEludeElude Us
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Victor Hugo (Illustrated)
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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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