Sire, said M. Myriel, you are looking at a good man, and I at a great man. Each of us can profit by it.
She loved with so much passion as she loved with ignorance. She did not know whether it were good or evil, beneficent or dangerous, necessary or accidental, eternal or transitory, permitted or prohibi...
Puesto que no hay remedio, tengamos valor con la muerte. Abracemos esta horrible idea con pecho firme; considerémosla cara a cara. Pidámosle cuenta de lo que es; sepamos qué quiere de nosotros; volvám...
Properly speaking, he no longer held opinions; he had sympathies. To which party did he belong? To the party of humanity.
Proceed, philosophers, teach, enlighten, enkindle, think aloud, speak aloud, run joyously towards the bright daylight, fraternise in the public squares, announce the glad tidings, scatter plenteously...
Probity, sincerity, candor, conviction, the idea of duty, are things that, when in error, can turn hideous, but – even though hideous – remain great; their majesty, peculiar to the human conscience, p...
Nothing supplies the place of this instinct. All the nuns in the world are not worth as much as one mother in the formation of a young girl's soul.
Never, even among animals, does the creature born to be a dove change into an osprey. That is only to be seen among men.
My friends, remember this: There are no bad herbs, and no bad men; there are only bad cultivators.
Mirrors, those revealers of the truth, are hated; that does not prevent them from being of use.
Marius made a movement.'Oh, don't go!' she said. 'It won't be long.'She was sitting almost upright, but her voice was very low and broken by hiccoughs. At moments she struggled for breath. Raising her...
Many men have a secret monster this way, a disease that they feed, a dragon that gnaws them, a despair that inhabits their night. Such a man seems like others, quite normal. Nobody knows that he has w...
M. Myriel devait subir le sort de tout nouveau venu dans une petite ville où il y a beaucoup de bouches qui parlent et fort peu de têtes qui pensent.
Love one another dearly, always. Nothing else in the world really matters but that: to love one another.
Love is like a tree: it shoots of itself; it strikes it's roots deeply into our whole being, and frequently continues to put forth green leaves over a heart in ruins. And there is this unaccountable c...
Look not at the face, young girl, look at the heart. The heart of a handsome youngman is often deformed. There are hearts in which love does not keep. Young girl, thepine is not beautiful; it is not b...
Jean Valjean opened his eyes wide, and stared at the venerable Bishop with an expression which no human tongue can render any account of.
Jean Valjean opened his eyes and looked at the bishop with an expression which no human tongue can describe.
Jean Valjean had undertaken to teach her to read. Sometimes, as he made the child spell, he remembered that it was with the idea of doing evil that he had learned to read in prison. This idea had ende...
Jean Valjean had entered the galleys sobbing and shuddering; he emerged impassive. He had entered in despair; he emerged gloomy.