Nous sommes pour la religion contre les religions.
One can no more prevent thought from recurring to an idea than one can the sea from returning to the shore: the sailor calls it the tide; the guilty man calls it remorse; God upheaves the soul as he does the ocean.
Neither was to blame for the way they felt, because Marius was someone who embraces sorry and dwells in it, but Cosette felt it deeply but recovered.
Each time he uttered the word ‘Monsieur’ in his mild, compassionable voice, the man’s face lighted up. The courtesy, to the ex-convict, was like fresh water to a shipwrecked man. Ignominy thirsts for respect.
Sin as little as possible – that is the law of mankind. Not to sin at all is the dream of the angel. All earthly tings are subject to sin. Sin is like gravity.
With just the ‘Carmagnole’ to sing he will only overthrow Louis XVI; but give him the ‘Marseillaise’ and he will liberate the world.
It is a novel constructed like a poem, where each character is only exceptional because if the hyperbolic manner in which he represents generality.
To love beauty is to see light.
What I feel for you seems less of earth and more of a cloudless heaven.
A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.
God created the flirt as soon as he made the fool.
An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.
One can resist the invasion of an army but one cannot resist the invasion of ideas.
I am a soul. I know well that what I shall render up to the grave is not myself. That which is myself will go elsewhere. Earth, thou art not my abyss!
Those who live are those who fight.
To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do.
If a man has his throat cut in Paris, it’s a murder. If 50,000 people are murdered in the east, it is a question.
Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.
In joined hands there is still some token of hope, in the clinched fist none.
The delight we inspire in others has this enchanting peculiarity that, far from being diminished like every other reflection, it returns to us more radiant than ever.