Revolutions spring not from accident, but from necessity. A revolution is a return from the factitious to the real. It takes place because it must.

Marius and Cosette were in the dark in regard to each other. They did not speak, they did not bow, they were not acquainted; they saw each other; and, like the stars in the sky...

One drop of wine is enough to redden a whole glass of water.

Let us not, however, exaggerate our power. Whatever man does, the great lines of creation persist; the supreme mass does not depend on man. He has power over the detail, not over the whole. And...

What a great thing, to be loved! What a greater thing still, to love! The heart becomes heroic though passion…if no one loved, the sun would go out.

Those who do not weep, do not see.

There is nothing like a dream to create the future.

Darks drifts covered the horizon. A strange shadow approaching nearer and nearer, was spreading little by little over men, over things, over ideas; a shadow which came from indignations and from systems. All that had...

There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.

He was troubled; this brain, so limpid in its blindness, had lost its transparency; there was a cloud in this crystal.

Who has been unhooking the stars without my permission, and putting them on the table in the guise of candles?

Curiosity is gluttony. To see is to devour.

All this ferment was public, we might almost say tranquil.The imminent insurrection gathered its storm calmly in the face of the government. No singularity was lacking in this crisis, still subterranean, but already perceptible. The...

[He] had to submit to the fate of every newcomer in a small town, where many tongues talk but few heads think.

Sia detto alla sfuggita, il successo è una cosa piuttosto lurida; la sua falsa somiglianza col merito inganna gli uomini. Per la folla, la riuscita ha quasi lo stesso profilo della supremazia. Il successo, sosia...

The sadness which reigned everywhere was but an excuse for unfailing kindness.

There, at a depth to which divers would find it difficult to descend, are caverns, haunts, and dusky mazes, where monstrous creatures multiply and destroy each other. Huge crabs devour fish and are devoured in...

Sin is a gravitation.

Intellectual and moral growth is no less indispensable than material improvement. Knowledge is a viaticum. Though is a prime necessity; truth is nourishment, like wheat. A reasoning faculty, deprived of knowledge and wisdom, pines away....

Madame Magloire,” retorted the Bishop, “you are mistaken. The beautiful is as useful as the useful.” He added after a pause, “More so, perhaps.

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.

L’argot n’est autre chose qu’un vestiaire où la langue, ayant quelque mauvaise action à faire, se déguise. Elle s’y revêt de mots masques et de métaphores haillons.

A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in–what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.

The merciful precepts of Christ will at last suffuse the Code and it will glow with their radiance. Crime will be considered an illness with its own doctors to replace your judges and its hospitals...

Let us admit, without bitterness, that the individual has his distinct interests and can, without felony, stipulate for those interests and defend them. The present has its pardonable amount of egotism; momentary life has its...

To study in Paris is to be born in Paris!

Vénérons le chien. Le chien (quel drôle de bête!), a sa sueur sur sa langue et son sourire dans sa queue.

She had had sweet dreams, which possibly arose from the fact that her little bed was very white.

What Is Love? I have met in the streets a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars through...

It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.

History has its truth, and so has legend. Legendary truth is of another nature than historical truth. Legendary truth is invention whose result is reality. Furthermore, history and legend have the same goal; to depict...

Si la nature s’appelle providence, la société doit s’appeler prévoyance.

Friend’ is sometimes a word devoid of meaning; enemy, never.

There is in every village a torch – the teacher:and an extinguisher – the clergyman.

To love and be loved, that is the miracle of youth

Every man who has in his soul a secret feeling of revolt against any act of the State, of life, or of destiny, is on the verge of riot; and so soon as it appears,...

He was there alone with himself, collected, tranquil, adoring, comparing the serenity of his heart with the serenity of the skies, moved in the darkness by the visible splendors of the constellations, and the invisible...

Madame Thenardier was approaching her forties, which is equivalent to fifty in a woman…

a mother who loses her child can no longer believe in God

If no one loved, the sun would go out.

Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.

The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real. It is by the real that we exist, it is by the ideal that we live.

His judgement demonstrates that one can be a genius and understand nothing of an art that is not one’s own.

L’homme n’est pas un cercle à un seul centre ; c’est une ellipse à deux foyers. Les faits sont l’un, les idées sont l’autre.

There is in every village a torch- the schoolteacher; and an extinguisher: the priest.

La lumière des torches ressemble à la sagesse des l ches; elle éclaire mal, parce qu’elle tremble.

To be a saint is to be an exception; to be a true man is the rule. Err, fail, sin if you must, but be upright. To sin as little as possible is the law...

Another said , “I don’t ask six months, I don’t ask two. In less than two weeks we’ll meet the government face to face. With twenty-five thousand men we can make our stand.

What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love!

Whether true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence on their lives, and particularly on their destinies, as what they do.