An increase of tenderness always ended by boiling over and turning to indignation. He was at the point where we seek to adopt a course, and to accept what tears us apart. (Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables")
Argot is nothing more nor less than a wardrobe in which language, having some bad deed to do, disguises itself. It puts on word-masks and metaphoric rags. (Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables")
If we wish to be happy, monsieur, we must never comprehend duty; for, as soon as we comprehend it, it is implacable. One would say that it punishes you for comprehending it; but no, it rewards you for it; for it puts you into a hell where you feel God at your side. (Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables")
It is a terrible thing to be happy! How pleased we are with it! How all-sufficient we think it! How, being in possession of the false aim of life, happiness, we forget the true aim, duty! (Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables")
Love has no middle term; either it destroys, or it saves. All human destiny is this dilemma. This dilemma, destruction or salvation, no fate proposes more inexorably than love. Love is life, if it is not death. Cradle; coffin, too. The same sentiment says yes and no in the human heart. Of all the things God has made, the human heart is the one that sheds most light, and alas! most night. (Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables")
Marius was of the temperament that sinks into grief and remains there; Cosette was of the sort that plunges in and comes out again. (Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables")
Nothing is more imminent than the impossible . . . what we must always foresee is the unforeseen. (Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables")
The soul helps the body, and at certain moments raises it. It is the only bird that sustains its cage. (Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables")
There is something more terrible than a hell of suffering--a hell of boredom. (Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables")
A creditor is worst than a master; for a master owns only your physical presence, whereas a creditor owns your dignity and may affront it. (Victor Hugo, "Les Misérables")
A man without a woman is like a pistol without a trigger; it is the woman who makes the man go off. (Victor Hugo, "Les Misérables")
A room where one merely goes to bed costs twenty sous but a room where one retires may cost twenty francs. (Victor Hugo, "Les Misérables")
A torch-flame resembles the wisdom of cowards: it gives a poor light because it trembles. (Victor Hugo, "Les Misérables")