Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
A poet who is a bad man is a degraded being, baser and more culpable than a bad man who is not a poet.
In the animal world no creature born to be a dove turns into a scavenger. This happens only among men.
I like the laughter that opens the lips and the heart, shows at the same time the pearls and the soul.
England has two books, the Bible and Shakespeare. England made Shakespeare,but the Bible made England.
If God had intended that man should go backward, he would have given him eyes in the back of his head.
God whose gifts in gracious flood Unto all who seek are sent, Only asks you to be good And is content.
All animals are to be found in men and each of theme exists in some man, sometimes several at the time.
If you look in the eyes of the young, you see flame. If you look in the eyes of the old, you see light.
There is no rapture in the love which is prompted by esteem; such affection is lasting, not passionate.
You are adorable, mademoiselle. I study your feet with the microscope and your soul with the telescope.
Emotion is always new and the word has always served; therein lies the difficulty of expressing emotion.
All who suffer are full of hatred; all who live drag a remorse: the dead alone have broken their chains.
Diamonds are found only in the dark places of the earth, truths are found only in the depths of thought.
A day will come when markets, open to trade, and minds, open to ideas, will become the sole battlefield.
People weighed down with troubles do not look back; they know only too well that misfortune stalks them.
Monsieur' to a convict is a glass of water to a man dying of thirst at sea; ignominy thirsts for respect.
Love each other dearly always. There is scarcely anything else in the world but that: to love one another.
There are fathers who do not love their children; there is no grandfather who does not adore his grandson.
The most excellent symbol of the people is the paving stone. One walks on it until it falls on one's head.
Reaction - a boat which is going against the current but which does not prevent the river from flowing on.
God has set his intentions in the flowers, in the dawn, in the spring, it is his will that we should love.
Beauty is as useful as the useful. More so, perhaps. (Le beau est aussi utile que l'utile. Plus peut-etre.)
His judgement demonstrates that one can be a genius and understand nothing of an art that is not one's own.
I believe in religion against the religious; in the pitifulness of orisons, and in the sublimity of prayer.
Ah," cried Gavroche, "what does this mean? It rains again! ...If this continues, I withdraw my subscription.
Cheerfulness is like money well expended in charity; the more we dispense of it, the greater our possession.
It was SHE. Whoever has loved knows all the radiant meaning contained in the three letters of this word ‘she.
As for the bishop, the sight of the guillotine was a great shock to him, from which he recovered only slowly.
That men saw his mask, but the bishop saw his face. That men saw his life, but the bishop saw his conscience.
Between the government which does evil and the people who accept it - there is a certain shameful solidarity.
He is the best gentleman that is the son of his own deserts, and not the degenerated heir of another's virtue.
The English took the eagle and Austrians the eaglet. [Fr., L'Angleterre prit l'aigle, et l'Autriche l'aiglon.]
A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.
He had slipped, climbed, rolled, searched, walked, persevered, that is all. Such is the secret of all triumphs.
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?
A day will come when there will be no battlefields, but markets opening to commerce and minds opening to ideas.
We see past time in a telescope and present time in a microscope. Hence the apparent enormities of the present.
When we are at the end of life, to die means to go away; when we are at the beginning, to go away means to die.
If the infinite had no me, then me would be its limit. It would not be the infinite, therefore it would not be.
So long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Miserables cannot fail to be of use.
If a man has his throat cut in Paris, it's a murder. If 50,000 people are murdered in the east, it is a question.
Sublime upon sublime scarcely presents a contrast, and we need a little rest from everything, even the beautiful.
A strange thing has happened, do you know? I am in darkness. There is a person who, departing, took away the sun.
As a means of contrast with the sublime, the grotesque is, in our view, the richest source that nature can offer.
It may be remarked in passing that success is an ugly thing. Men are deceived by its false resemblences to merit.
Nothing is more dangerous than discontinued labor; it is habit lost. A habit easy to abandon, difficult to resume.
To be a saint is the exception; to be a just person is the rule. Err, stumble, commit sin, but be one of the just.
Don't educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy, so they know the value of things, not the price.
Need is a low door which, when we must by stern necessity pass through, forces the greatest to bend down the most.
She worked in order to live, and presently fell in love, also in order to live, for the heart, too, has its hunger.