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Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo Quotes

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Famous Victor Hugo Quotes

“He was there alone with himself, collected, tranquil, adoring, comparing the serenity of his heart with the serenity of the skies, moved in the darkness by the visible splendors of the constellations, and the invisible splendor of God, opening his soul to the thoughts which fall from the Unknown. In such moments, offering up his heart at the hour when the flowers of night inhale their perfume, lighted like a lamp in the center of the starry night, expanding his soul in ecstasy in the midst of the universal radiance of creation, he could not himself perhaps have told what was passing in his own mind; he felt something depart from him, and something descend upon him, mysterious interchanges of the depths of the soul with the depths of the universe.”

GodStarsConstellationsNight Sky
Book:Les Misérables
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“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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“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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“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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“In the vast cosmical changes, the universal life comes and goes in unknown quantities, ... sowing an animalcule here, crumbling a star there, oscillating and ... entangling, from the highest to the lowest, all activities in the obscurity of a dizzying mechanism, hanging the flight of an insect upon the movement of the earth... Enormous gearing, whose first motor is the gnat, and whose last wheel is the zodiac.”

LifeFirstsEarthLastsScienceUniverseStarsMovementActivityHighestUniversalEnormousFlightWheelsMechanismQuantityLowestInsectsMotorComes And GoesObscuritySowingCrumblingZodiacGnatsUniversal Life
Author:Victor Hugo
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“Separated lovers cheat absence by a thousand fancies which have their own reality. They are prevented from seeing one another and they cannot write; nevertheless they find countless mysterious ways of corresponding, by sending each other the song of birds, the scent of flowers, the laughter of children.”

WayLoveWritingChildrenRealityLightDesireSongStarsSunSeeingCreationWindFlowerLoversThousandLaughterBirdAbsenceMysteriousFancyNeverthelessCheatScentGleamCorrespondingMysterious Ways
Author:Victor Hugo
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“What was more needed by this old man who divided the leisure hours of his life, where he had so little leisure, between gardening in the daytime, and contemplation at night? Was not this narrow enclosure, with the sky for a background, enough to enable him to adore God in his most beautiful as well as in his most sublime works? Indeed, is not that all, and what more can be desired? A little garden to walk, and immensity to reflect upon. At his feet something to cultivate and gather; above his head something to study and meditate upon: a few flowers on the earth, and all the stars in the sky.”

MenWellsLittlesEnoughEarthBeautifulNightStarsHoursWalksStudyFeetSkyFlowerNeededReflectionGardenBackgroundsContemplationOld ManDividedLeisureGardeningSublimeAdoreDaytimeImmensityStars In The SkyEnclosure
Author:Victor Hugo
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“Never had the sky been more studded with stars and more charming, the trees more trembling, the odor of the grass more penetrating; never had the birds fallen asleep among the leaves with a sweeter noise; never had all the harmonies of universal serenity responded more thoroughly to the inward music of love; never had Marius been more captivated, more happy, more ecstatic.”

StarsTreeSkyBirdUniversalHarmonyNoiseGrassFallenSerenityInwardCharmingTremblingEcstaticOdorCaptivatedMarius
Book:Delphi Complete Works of Victor Hugo (Illustrated)
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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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“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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