I did not think that it was so monstrous. It is wrong to become absorbed in the divine law to such a degree as not to perceive human law. Death belongs to God alone. By what right do men touch that un...
How was Jean Valjean going to conduct himself in the face of Cosette and Marius's happiness? A happiness he himself had wanted, that he himself had made; he was the one who had stabbed himself in the...
He who has not been a stubborn accuser in prosperity should hold his peace in the face of ruin.
He was out there alone with himself, composed, tranquil, adoring, comparing the serenity of his heart to the serenity of the skies, moved in the darkness by the visible splendors of the constellations...
He was fond of saying, There is a bravery of the priest as well as the bravery of a colonel of dragoons,--only, he added, ours must be tranquil.
He loved books; books are cold but safe friends. In
He left her. She was dissatisfied with him. He had preferred to incur her anger rather than cause her pain. He had kept all the pain for himself.
He had slipped, climbed, rolled, searched, walked, persevered, that is all. Such is the secret of all triumphs.
He found that man needs affection, that life without a warming love is but a dry wheel, creaking and grating as it turns.
Great edifices, like great mountains, are the work of the ages.
For there are many great deeds done in the small struggles of life. There is a determined though unseen bravery that defends itself foot by foot in the darkness against the fatal invasions of necessit...
For the masses, success has almost the same profile as supremacy.
Excess of grief, like excess of joy is a violent thing which lasts but a short time. The heart of man cannot remain long in one extremity.
Everything looked charming to him now. Never again would he read these books, write on this little white wooden table!
Every time that the wind blows it bears with it more of the dreams of men than of the clouds of heaven.
Errors make excellent projectiles. They strike it cleverly in its vulnerable spot, in default of a cuirass, in its lack of logic;
C’est que l’amour est comme un arbre, il pousse de lui-même, jette profondément ses racines dans tout notre être, et continue souvent de verdoyer sur un cœur en ruines. Et ce qu’il y a d’inexplicabl...
Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery.
Curiosity is a sort of gluttony. To see is to devour.
Civil war... What did the words mean? Was there any such thing as 'foreign war'? Was not all warfare between men warfare between brothers? Wars could only be defined by their aims. There were no 'fore...