Citizens, the nineteenth century is grand, but the twentieth century will be happy. Then there will be nothing more like old history. Men will no longer have to fear, as now, a conquest, an invasion,...
Chantez, riez; soyez heureux, soyes célèbres;Chacun de vous sers bientôt dans les ténèbres.
Carve as we will the mysterious block of which our life is made, the black vein of destiny constantly reappears in it.
Can human nature ever be wholly and radically transformed? Can the man whom God made good be made wicked by man? Can the soul be reshaped in its entirety by destiny and made evil because destiny is ev...
By degrees, however, they began to hope again. Such are our insubmergable mirages of the soul! There is no distress so complete but that even in the most critical moments the inexplicable sunrise of h...
Books are cold but safe friends.
At his feet something to cultivate and gather; above his head something to study and meditate on; a few flowers on earth and all the stars in heaven.
Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls.
All is not at an end on earth since we can still talk nonsense.
Algebra applies to the clouds; the radiance of the star benefits the rose; no thinker would dare to say that the perfume of the hawthorn is useless to the constellations.
Ah, Monsieur Priest, you love not the crudities of the true. Christ loved them. He seized a rod and cleared out the Temple. His scourge, full of lightnings, was a harsh speaker of truths. When he crie...
Ah! There you are! he exclaimed, looking at Jean Valjean. I'm so glad to see you. Well, but how is this? I gave you the candlesticks too, which are of silver like the rest, and for which you can certa...
Abstruse speculations contain vertigo.
A smile is the same as sunshine; it banishes winter from the human countenance.
A flower should smell sweet, and a woman should have wit.
A book is so soon made, costs so little, and may go so far! Why should we surprised that all human thought flows that way?
A beautiful woman is a casus belli; a pretty woman is flagrant misdemeanour. All the invasions of history have been determined by petticoats.
Mothers are often fondest of the child which has caused them the greatest pain.
What pleases us in those who are rising is less pleasing in those who are falling. We do not admire the combat when there is no danger; and in any case, the combatants of the first hour alone have the...
Man lives by affirmation even more than he does by bread.