# Quote — Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

> My father... was a humble and heroic man, who served the republic and France gloriously, who was great in the greatest history that men have made, who lived a quarter of a century in the camp, by day under grape and under balls, by night in the snow, in the mud, and in the rain, who captured colours, who received twenty wounds, who died forgotten and abandoned, and who had but one fault; that was in loving too dearly two ingrates, his country and me.

- Author: [Victor Hugo](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo.md)
- Book: [Les Miserables](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables.md)
- Page: 544
- Original (fr): Mon père... c’était un homme humble et héroïque qui a glorieusement servi la République et la France, qui a été grand dans la plus grande histoire que les hommes aient jamais faite, qui a vécu un quart de siècle au bivouac, le jour sous la mitraille et sous les balles, la nuit dans la neige, dans la boue, sous la pluie, qui a pris deux drapeaux, qui a reçu vingt blessures, qui est mort dans l’oubli et dans l’abandon, et qui n’a jamais eu qu’un tort, c’est de trop aimer deux ingrats, son pays et moi!
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables#Book_III_-_The_Grandfather_and_the_Grandson) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/my-father-was

## More from this book

> Never am I seen with coats bedizened with gold and gems; I leave this false splendour to badly organized minds.

p. 1027 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/never-am-i-seen.md)

> It is nothing to die; it is horrible not to live.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/it-is-nothing.md)

> The soul does not give itself up to despair until it has exhausted all illusions.

p. 968 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/the-soul-does.md)