The convent, which belongs to the West as it does to the East, to antiquity as it does to the present time, to Buddhism and Muhammadanism as it does to Christianity, is one of the optical devices whereby man gains a glimpse of infinity.
For prying into any human affairs, non are equal to those whom it does not concern.
Science is continually correcting what it has said. Fertile corrections... science is a ladder... poetry is a winged flight... An artistic masterpiece exists for all time... Dante does not efface Homer.
The holy law of Jesus Christ governs our civilisation, but it does not yet permeate it.
...Man lives by affirmation even more than he does by bread.
The man who does not know other languages, unless he is a man of genius, necessarily has deficiencies in his ideas.
To be perfectly happy it does not suffice to possess happiness, it is necessary to have deserved it.
It is most pleasant to commit a just action which is disagreeable to someone whom one does not like.
Die, very good, but do not make others die. Suicides like the one which is about to take place here are sublime, but suicide is restricted, and does not allow of extension; and so soon as it affects your neighbors, suicide becomes murder.
Ah," cried Gavroche, "what does this mean? It rains again! ...If this continues, I withdraw my subscription.
But I have been exposed, I am pursued - by myself! That is a pursuit that does not readily let go.
My greatness does not extend to this shelf.
Mirrors, those revealers of the truth, are hated; that does not prevent them from being of use.
It is those books which a man possesses but does not read which constitute the most suspicious evidence against him.
To be wicked does not insure prosperity - for the inn did not succeed well.
What says the law? You will not kill. How does it say it? By killing!
Reaction - a boat which is going against the current but which does not prevent the river from flowing on.
A language does not become fixed. The human intellect is always on the march, or, if you prefer, in movement, and languages with it.
He does not weep who does not see.