Victor Hugo (1802 ~ 1885 )
An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.
Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved.
There is nothing like dream to create the future. Utopia to-day, flesh and blood tomorrow.
Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.
What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love!
Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.
There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.
Adversity makes men, and prosperity makes monsters.
I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses.
A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.
Popularity? It is glory's small change.
To be a saint is the exception; to be upright is the rule. Err, falter, sin, but be upright. To commit the least possible sin is the law for man. Sin is a gravitation.
If suffer we must, let's suffer on the heights.
He who every morning plans the transaction of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the maze of the most busy life. But where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incidence, chaos will soon reign.
There are certain emotions which can find expression only in silence.
Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.
oNothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
o Imagination is intelligence with an erection.
oWhen 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.
oTo assume a right to the obedience of certain beings is to give others a right to command you.
oTears unshed are far more bitter than those that flow.
oWhen one enjoys full liberty, one must use it with the utmost moderation.
A man's philosophy is the bed he lies on.
Conscience is the amount of inner knowledge that we possess.
The harsh blows of fate have this especial quality, that however self-perfected we may be, however disciplined, they draw from us the true essence of ourselves.
Skepticism, that dry rot of the intellect .
Can you not see that to decide to do nothing is the most wretched of all decisions?
Where the telescope ends the microscope begins, and who can say which has the wider vision?
A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.
It is possible to conceive of something even more terrible than a hell of suffering, and that is a hell of boredom.
Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.
Often the losing of a battle leads to the winning of progress. Less glory but greater liberty: the drum is silent and the voice of reason can be heard.
Age is no threat to the great men of the mind: with the Dantes and the Michelangelos, to grow older is to grow.
Robspierre replied softly, 'the question is to know where is the enemy.' 'He is out there, and I have hunted him,' said Danton. 'He is within, and I am watching him,' said Robespierre.
A right is not to be treated as a favor.
What men order, things disorder.
The human heart ... can contain only a limited amount of despair. Once the sponge is saturated, the sea can pass over it without another drop entering.
Liberty suppressed is property destroyed.
For each of us, there are certain parallelisms between our intellect, our habits, and our character, which develop without interruption and are broken only by life's great upheavals.
Life is a gift from heaven, too palpable and precious.
What is grace? It is the inspiration from on high: it is love; it is liberty. Grace is the spirit of law. This discovery of the spirit of law belongs to Saint Paul; and what he calls "grace" from a heavenly point of view, we, from an earthly point, call "rigtheousness."
The greatest happiness of life it the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labour and there is invisible labour.