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Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo Quotes

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Famous Victor Hugo Quotes

“Do you know what friendship is?' he asked. 'Yes,' replied the gypsy; 'it is to be brother and sister; two souls which touch without mingling, two fingers on one hand.' 'And love?' pursued Gringoire. 'Oh! love!' said she, and her voice trembled, and her eye beamed. 'That is to be two and to be but one. A man and a woman mingled into one angel. It is heaven.”

KnowsMenSaidTwoSoulHandsEyeHeavenVoiceBrotherAngelAnd LoveFingersDo You KnowHer EyesBrothers And SistersPursuedGypsyMinglingTwo Souls
Book:The Works of Victor Hugo
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“From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.”

MenGivingMadeSoulSometimesEyeFoundNatureAnimalVirtueReflectionCookingVicesVisiblePetManifestDisplayTigersEaglesOystersSwinePortrayal
Author:Victor Hugo
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“It seemed to be a necessary ritual that he should prepare himself for sleep by meditating under the solemnity of the night sky... a mysterious transaction between the infinity of the soul and the infinity of the universe.”

ShouldSoulNightUniverseSleepSpaceSkySolitudeMysteriousRitualInfinityMeditatingNight SkyTransactionsStar GazingSolemnitySun And StarsSky And CloudsSun Moon And StarsClouds And StarsStars In The Night Sky
Book:Les Misérables
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“Such is the remorseless progression of human society, shedding lives and souls as it goes on its way. It is an ocean into which men sink who have been cast out by the law and consigned, with help most cruelly withheld, to moral death. The sea is the pitiless social darkness into which the penal system casts those it has condemned, an unfathomable waste of misery. The human soul, lost in those depths, may become a corpse. Who shall revive it?”

MenWayHumansMayHas BeensSoulHelpingLawLostSocialMoralDarknessSeaGoes OnWasteOceanPrisonMiseryDepthCastsJailCorpsesHuman SoulProgressionHuman SocietyReviveUnfathomableRemorselessPrison System
Book:Les Misérables
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“The book which the reader now holds in his hands, from one end to the other, as a whole and in its details, whatever gaps, exceptions, or weaknesses it may contain, treats of the advance from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsity to truth, from darkness to daylight, from blind appetite to conscience, from decay to life, from bestiality to duty, from Hell to Heaven, from limbo to God. Matter itself is the starting-point, and the point of arrival is the soul. Hydra at the beginning, an angel at the end.”

MayBookSoulEndsMatterWholeHandsEvilHeavenJusticeDarknessHellDutyReaderWeaknessConscienceAngelTreatsBlindInjusticeStartingDetailsExceptionGapsAppetiteDecayDaylightArrivalsStarting PointLimboFalsityHydra
Author:Victor Hugo
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“Humanity is our common lot. All men are made of the same clay. There is no difference, at least here on Earth, in the fate assigned to us. We come of the same void, inhabit the same flesh, are dissolved in the same ashes. But ignorance infecting the human substance turns it black, and that incurable blackness, gaining possession of the soul, becomes Evil.”

MenHumansMadeSoulEarthHumanityTurnsEvilBlackDifferencesCommonFateIgnorancePossessionFleshSubstanceVoidAshesClayBlackness
Author:Victor Hugo
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“As we have said, robust souls are sometimes almost, but not entirely, overthrown by strokes of misfortune....Despair has steps leading upward. From total depression we rise to despondency, from despondency to affliction, from affliction to melancholy. Melancholy is a twilight state in which suffering transmutes into a somber joy....Melancholy is the enjoyment of being sad.”

SaidSoulSometimesStatesJoySufferingStepsDespairEnjoymentMelancholyMisfortunesTwilightStrokesAfflictionRobustBeing SadSomberDespondency
Author:Victor Hugo
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“There is will in the thought, there is none in the dream. The dream, which is completely spontaneous, takes and keeps, even in the gigantic and the ideal, the form of our mind. Nothing springs more directly and more sincerely from the very bottom of our souls than our unreflected and indefinite aspirations towards the splendours of destiny.”

MindSoulDreamFormDestinySpringIdealsBottomAspirationSpontaneousSincerelySplendour
Book:Les Miserables Volume One
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“Wonderful nature has a double meaning, which dazzles great minds and blinds uncultivated souls. When man is ignorant, when the desert is filled with visions, the darkness of solitude is added to the darkness of intelligence; hence, in man, the possibilities of perdition”

MenMindSoulVisionDarknessWonderfulPossibilitySolitudeFilledIgnorantDesertGreat MindsDazzlePerditionDouble MeaningWonderful Nature
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Victor Hugo (Illustrated)
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“To crush out fanaticism and revere the infinite, such is the law. Let us not confine ourselves to falling prostrate beneath the tree of creation and contemplating its vast ramifications full of stars. We have a duty to perform, to cultivate the human soul, to defend mystery against miracle, to adore the incomprehensible and to reject the absurd; to admit nothing that is inexplicable excepting what is necessary, to purify faith and obliterate superstition from the face of religion, to remove the vermin from the garden of God.”

HumansSoulFacesLawReligionFallStarsMysteryTreeCreationDutyGardenMiracleInfiniteAbsurdCrushRemoveRejectsSuperstitionsContemplatingAdoreHuman SoulFanaticismInexplicableRamificationsVermin
Author:Victor Hugo
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