Victor Hugo Quotes

If you wish to understand what Revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to understand what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.

What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love!

Let us sacrifice one day to gain perhaps a whole life.

If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness. (Monseigneur Bienvenu in _Les Miserables_)

There are no weeds, and no worthless men. There are only bad farmers.

Diamonds are found only in the dark bowels of the earth; truths are found only in the depths of thought. It seemed to him that after descending into those depths after long groping in the blackest of this darkness, he had at last found one of these diamonds, one of these truths, and that he held it in his hand; and it blinded him to look at it. (pg. 231)

When you get an idea into your head you find it in everything.

Nobody loves the light like the blind man.

The first symptom of true love in a man is timidity, in a young woman, boldness. This is surprising, and yet nothing is more simple. It is the two sexes tending to approach each other and assuming each the other's qualities.

But listen, there will be more joy in heaven over the tears of a repentant sinner than over the white robes of a hundred just men.

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves — say rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

Diamonds are to be found only in the darkness of the earth, and truth in the darkness of the mind.

"She let her head fall back upon Marius' knees and her eyelids closed. He thought that poor soul had gone. Eponine lay motionless; but just when Marius supposed her for ever asleep, she slowly opened her eyes in which the gloomy deepness of death appeared, and said to him with an accent the sweetness on which already seemed to come from another world:

"And then, do you know, Monsieur Marius, I believe I was a little in love with you."

She essayed to smile again and expired."

Spira, spera.

(breathe, hope)

What is said about men often has as much influence upon their lives, and especially upon their destinies, as what they do.