Memory is a gulf that a word can move to its lowest depths.
Marius was of the temperament that sinks into grief and remains there; Cosette was of the sort that plunges in and comes out again.
Mankind is not a circle with a single centre but an ellipse with two focal points of which facts are one and ideas the other.
Loving is almost a substitute for thinking. Love is a burning forgetfulness of all other things. How shall we ask passion to be logical?
Love is a fault; so be it.
Long live the Republic! I'm one of them.Grantaire had risen. The immense gleam of the whole combat which he had missed, and in which he had had no part, appeared in the brilliant glance of the transfi...
Let us come to an understanding about equality; for, if liberty is the summit, equality is the base.
Le suprême bonheur de la vie, c'est la conviction qu'on est aimé; aimé pour soi-même, disons mieux, aimé malgré soi-même.
La suprema dicha de la vida, es la convicción de que se es amado; amado por sí mismo, digamos mejor, ama¬do a pesar de sí mismo.
La lumière des torches ressemble à la sagesse des lâches; elle éclaire mal, parce qu'elle tremble.
La Tour-Gauvain avait une destinée étrange : un Gauvain l'attaquait, un Gauvain la défendait.
Jean Valjean understood thoroughly the expiation of the former; that personal expiation, the expiation for one’s self. But he did not understand that of these last, that of creatures without reproach...
It was a garbage heap, and it was Sinai.
It seemed as though he had for a soul the book of the natural law.
It is like a skull, which still has holes for eyes, but no longer sight.
It does not do to let the senses fall asleep, whether in the shade of the sacred tree or in the shadow of an army.
Is there not in every human soul a primitive spark, a divine element, incorruptible in this world and immortal in the next, which can be developed by goodness, kindled, lit up, and made to radiate, an...
Il possédait comme tout le monde sa terminaison en iste, sans laquelle personne n'aurait pu vivre en ce temps-là, mais il n'était ni royaliste, ni bonapartiste, ni chartiste, ni orléaniste, ni anarchi...
Il n’y a rien de tel pour épier les actions des gens que ceux qu’elles ne regardent pas.
If you wish to gain an idea of what revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to acquire an idea of the nature of progress, call it To-morrow. To-morrow fulfils its work irresistibly, and it is...