Victor Hugo Quotes - Page 17

• To err is human. To loaf is Parisian.

  Victor Hugo

  Paris, Humans, Err Is Human

  Victor Hugo (1994). “Les Miserables Volume One”, p.439, Wordsworth Editions

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• Science says the first word on everything, and the last word on nothing.

  Victor Hugo

  Science, Lasts, Firsts

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• People weighed down with troubles do not look back; they know only too well that misfortune stalks them.

  Victor Hugo

  People, Looks, Trouble

  Victor Hugo, Charles Edwin Wilbour (1987). “Les misérables”, Dutton Adult

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• Nothing discernible to the eye of the spirit is more brilliant or obscure than man; nothing is more formidable, complex, mysterious, and infinite. There is a prospect greater than the sea, and it is the sky; there is a prospect greater than the sky, and it is the human soul.

  Victor Hugo

  Eye, Men, Sea

  Victor Hugo (1980). “Les misérables”, Viking Pr

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• Blessed be Providence which has given to each his toy: the doll to the child, the child to the woman, the woman to the man, the man to the devil!

  Victor Hugo

  Children, Blessed, Men

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• Children at once accept joy and happiness with quick familiarity, being themselves naturally all happiness and joy.

  Victor Hugo

  Children, Joy, Accepting

  Victor Hugo (2012). “Les Misérables”, p.86, Courier Corporation

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• Years place at last a venerable crown upon a head.

  Victor Hugo

  Years, Lasts, Crowns

  Victor Hugo (1862). “Marius”, p.27

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• Great buildings, like great mountains, are the work of centuries.

  Victor Hugo

  Mountain, Building, Century

  Victor Hugo (2004). “The Essential Victor Hugo”, p.63, Oxford University Press, UK

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• We are all under sentence of death, but with a sort of indefinite reprieve.

  Victor Hugo

  Sentences, Reprieve

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• Too much improvisation leaves the mind stupidly void.

  Victor Hugo

  Mind, Too Much, Void

  Victor Hugo (2000). “Les Mis??rables”, p.116, Modern Library

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• 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.

  Victor Hugo

  Men, Light, Numbers

  Victor Hugo (1980). “Les misérables”, Viking Pr

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• ...Human thought has no limit. At its risk and peril, it analyzes and dissects its own fascination. We could almost say that, by a sort of splendid reaction, it fascinates nature; the mysterious world surrounding us returns what it receives; it is likely that contemplators are contemplated.

  Victor Hugo

  Risk, Fascination, World

  Victor Hugo, Charles Edwin Wilbour (1987). “Les misérables”, Dutton Adult

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• Often the losing of a battle leads to the winning of progress. Less glory but greater liberty: the drum is silent and the voices of reason can be heard.

  Victor Hugo

  Winning, Voice, Progress

  Victor Hugo (1980). “Les misérables”, Viking Pr

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• Babylon violated diminishes Alexander; Rome enslaved diminishes Caesar; massacred Jerusalem diminishes Titus. Tyranny follows the tyrant. Woe to the man who leaves behind a shadow that bears his form.

  Victor Hugo

  Men, Rome, Tyrants

  Victor Hugo, Charles Edwin Wilbour (1987). “Les misérables”, Dutton Adult

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• There is no such thing as a little country. The greatness of a people is no more determined by their numbers than the greatness of a man is by his height.

  Victor Hugo

  Life, Country, Greatness

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• War can only be qualified by its object, and there is neither foreign war nor civil war, there is only just or unjust war.

  Victor Hugo

  War, Unjust War, Civil War

  "Les Miserables".

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• A man trying to escape never thinks himself sufficiently concealed.

  Victor Hugo

  Men, Thinking, Trying

  Victor Hugo (1994). “Les Miserables Volume One”, p.312, Wordsworth Editions

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• Emergencies have always been necessary to progress. It was darkness which produced the lamp. It was fog that produced the compass. It was hunger that drove us to exploration. And it took a depression to teach us the real value of a job.

  Victor Hugo

  Spiritual, Jobs, Real

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• The poor man shuddered, overflowed with an angelic joy; he declared in his transport that this would last through life; he said to himself that he really had not suffered enough to deserve such radiant happiness, and he thanked God, in the depths of his soul, for having permitted that he, a miserable man, should be so loved by this innocent being.

  Victor Hugo

  Gratitude, Men, Joy

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• Each man should frame life so that at some future hour fact and his dreaming meet.

  Victor Hugo

  Life, Dream, Men

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• I will be Chateaubriand or nothing.

  Victor Hugo

  Victor Hugo (2007). “Hugo's Works: Last Days of a Condemned and Life of Victor Hugo”, Wildside Press LLC

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• I'd like a drink. I desire to forget life. Life is a hideous invention by somebody I don't know. It doesn't last, and it's good for nothing. You break your neck simply living.

  Victor Hugo

  Desire, Lasts, Necks

  Victor Hugo (1987). “Les Misérables”, Signet Classics

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• To breathe Paris is to preserve one's soul.

  Victor Hugo

  Paris, Soul, Breathe

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• Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. From that divine tear and from that human smile is derived the grace of present civilization.

  Victor Hugo

  Smile, Jesus, Civilization

  "Centenaire de Voltaire" (1878)

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• If people did not love one another, I really don't see what use there would be in having any spring.

  Victor Hugo

  Spring, People, Would Be

  Victor Hugo (1863). “Les misérables”

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