{
  "type": "quote",
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  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/the-minds-eye",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/the-minds-eye.json",
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  "id": "2476acfa-db9c-46ee-b4bd-b367c577b2d8",
  "slug": "the-minds-eye",
  "text": "The mind's eye can nowhere find anything more dazzling nor more dark than in man; it can fix itself upon nothing which is more awful, more complex, more mysterious, or more infinite. There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.\n\nTo write the poem of the human conscience, were it only of a single man, were it only of the most infamous of men, would be to swallow up all epics in a superior and final epic. The conscience is the chaos of chimeras, of lusts and of temptations, the furnace of dreams, the cave of the ideas which are our shame; it is the pandemonium of sophisms, the battlefield of the passions. At certain hours, penetrate within the livid face of a human being who reflects, and look at what lies behind; look into that soul, look into that obscurity. There, beneath the external silence, there are combats of giants as in Homer, melees of dragons and hydras, and clouds of phantoms as in Milton, ghostly labyrinths as in Dante. What a gloom enwraps that infinite which each man bears within himself, and by which he measures in despair the desires of his will, and the actions of his life!",
  "language": "en",
  "author": {
    "name": "Victor Hugo",
    "slug": "victor-hugo",
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  "book": {
    "title": "Les Miserables",
    "slug": "les-miserables",
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  "character": null,
  "chapter": null,
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  "page": 184,
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  "original": {
    "language": "fr",
    "text": "L’œil de l’esprit ne peut trouver nulle part plus d’éblouissements ni plus de ténèbres que dans l’homme; il ne peut se fixer sur aucune chose qui soit plus redoutable, plus compliquée, plus mystérieuse et plus infinie. Il y a un spectacle plus grand que la mer, c’est le ciel; il y a un spectacle plus grand que le ciel, c’est l’intérieur de l’âme.\n\nFaire le poème de la conscience humaine, ne fût-ce qu’à propos d’un seul homme, ne fût-ce qu’à propos du plus infime des hommes, ce serait fondre toutes les épopées dans une épopée supérieure et définitive. La conscience, c’est le chaos des chimères, des convoitises et des tentatives, la fournaise des rêves, l’antre des idées dont on a honte; c’est le pandémonium des sophismes, c’est le champ de bataille des passions. À de certaines heures, pénétrez à travers la face livide d’un être humain qui réfléchit, et regardez derrière, regardez dans cette âme, regardez dans cette obscurité. Il y a là, sous le silence extérieur, des combats de géants comme dans Homère, des mêlées de dragons et d’hydres et des nuées de fantômes comme dans Milton, des spirales visionnaires comme chez Dante. Chose sombre que cet infini que tout homme porte en soi et auquel il mesure avec désespoir les volontés de son cerveau et les actions de sa vie!"
  },
  "other_languages": [],
  "topics": [
    {
      "name": "soul",
      "slug": "soul",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/soul"
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    {
      "name": "conscience",
      "slug": "conscience",
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  "source": {
    "name": "Wikiquote",
    "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables#Book_VII_-_The_Champmathieu_Affair",
    "license": {
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  "added_at": "2026-09-26T08:09:48",
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    {
      "id": "f2ec196b-7805-428b-9609-5d36b68472cb",
      "slug": "it-is-nothing",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/it-is-nothing",
      "text": "It is nothing to die; it is horrible not to live.",
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      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
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      "topics": [
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          "name": "death",
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        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables#Ch._V_-_Night_Behind_Which_Is_Dawn",
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      "slug": "the-soul-does",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/the-soul-does",
      "text": "The soul does not give itself up to despair until it has exhausted all illusions.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 968,
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      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables#Book_XV_-_The_Rue_De_L'Homme_Arm%C3%A9",
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    {
      "id": "e6b8aa90-f0d8-4bc6-8798-e21a6305d6b6",
      "slug": "the-forests-through",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/victor-hugo/les-miserables/the-forests-through",
      "text": "The forests through which we have passed with our child, the trees under which we have walked, the convents in which we have hidden, the games, the free laughter of childhood, all is in shadow. I imagined that all that belonged to me. There was my folly. Those Thenardiers were wicked. We must forgive them. Cosette, the time has come to tell of your mother. Her name was Fantine. Remember that name: Fantine. Fall on your knees whenever you pronounce it. She suffered much. And loved you much. Her measure of unhappiness was as full as yours of happiness. Such are the distributions of God. He is on high, he sees us all, and he knows what he does in the midst of his great stars. So I am going away, my children. Love each other dearly always. There is scarcely anything else in the world but that: to love one another.",
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      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "love",
          "slug": "love",
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      "source": {
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        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables#Ch._V_-_Night_Behind_Which_Is_Dawn",
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