Victor Hugo

"The bureau is closed," said Gavroche. "I receive no more complaints."

It is a pity that I am ignorant, for I would quote you a crowd of things, but I don't know anything.

Thought is the labor of the intellect, reverie is its pleasure.

The wind of revolutions is not tractable.

In '93, a coppersmith bought the house to pull it down, but not being able to pay the price for it, the nation sent him into bankruptcy. So that it was the house that pulled down the coppersmith.

Should we continue to look upwards? Is the light we can see in the sky one of those which will presently be extinguished? The ideal is terrifying to behold, lost as it is in the depths, small, isolated, a pin-point, brilliant but threatened on all sides by the dark forces that surround it: nevertheless, no more in danger than a star in the jaws of the clouds.

His creditors had sought for him, also, with less love than Marius but with as much zeal, and had not been able to put their hands on him.

Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers.

Thoughtful persons seldom speak of happiness or unhappiness. In this world, which is so plainly the antechamber of another, there are no happy men. The true division of humanity is between those who live in light and those who live in darkness. Our aim must be to diminish the number of the latter and increase the number of the former. That is why we demand education and knowledge.

A clock does not stop at the very moment you lose the key.

He took good care not to be useless; having books did not prevent him from reading, being a botanist did not prevent him from being a gardener.

The room thus lighted up seemed rather a smithy than the mouth of hell; but Jondrette, in that glare, had rather the appearance of a demon than of a blacksmith.