Victor Hugo

Pain is as diverse as man. One suffers as one can.

Close by the Rights of Man, at the least set beside them, are the Rights of the Spirit.

Nations, like stars, are entitled to eclipse. All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.

Smallness in a great man seems smaller by its disproportion with all the rest.

The omnipotence of evil has never resulted in anything but fruitless efforts. Our thoughts always escape from whoever tries to smother them.

Reaction - a boat which is going against the current but which does not prevent the river from flowing on.

Indigestion is charged by God with enforcing morality on the stomach.

One believes others will do what he will do to himself.

Many great actions are committed in small struggles.

It is from books that wise men derive consolation in the troubles of life.

When liberty returns, I will return.

Try as you will, you cannot annihilate that eternal relic of the human heart, love.

It is the end. But of what? The end of France? No. The end of kings? Yes.

I love all men who think, even those who think otherwise than myself.

The soul has illusions as the bird has wings: it is supported by them.

Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.

Religions do a useful thing: they narrow God to the limits of man. Philosophy replies by doing a necessary thing: it elevates man to the plane of God.

Habit is the nursery of errors.

Do not let it be your aim to be something, but to be someone.

It is often necessary to know how to obey a woman in order sometimes to have the right to command her.

As the purse is emptied, the heart is filled.