Marius and Cosette did not ask where this would lead them. They looked at themselves as arrived. It is a strange pretension for men to ask that love should lead them somewhere.
My day’s work will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley.
Death belongs to God alone; by what right do men touch that unknown thing?
Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibres.
Art needs no spur beyond itself.
The true artist can only labor con amore.
To rove about, musing, that is to say loitering, is, for a philosopher, a good way of spending time.
Kings are for nations in their swaddling-clothes: France has attained her majority.
A bird sings, a child prattles, but it is the same hymn; hymn indistinct, inarticulate, but full of profound meaning.
To live a life which is a perpetual falsehood is to suffer unknown tortures.
Houses are like the human beings that inhabit them.
Let us fear the worst, but work with faith; the best will always take care of itself.
Excitement is not enjoyment: in calmness lies true pleasure. The most precious wines are sipped, not bolted at a swallow.
There is no rapture in the love which is prompted by esteem; such affection is lasting, not passionate.
Earnestness is the salt of eloquence.
Every body drags its shadow, and every mind its doubt.
There is such a thing as the pressure of darkness.
The repose of darkness is deeper on the water than on the land.
Cheerfulness is like money well expended in charity; the more we dispense of it, the greater our possession.
The poetic element lying hidden in most women is the source of their magnetic attraction.