Famous quotes by »

Have no fear of robbers or murderers. They are external dangers, petty dangers. We should fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices the real murderers. The great dangers are within us. Why worry about what threatens our heads or our purses? Let us think instead of what threatens our souls.”

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

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.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossile to be silent.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Separated lovers cheat absence by a thousand fancies which have their own reality. They are prevented from seeing one another and they cannot write nevertheless they find countless mysterious ways of corresponding, by sending each other the song of birds, the scent of flowers, the laughter of children, the light of the sun, the sighing of the wind, and the gleam of the stars-all the beauties of creation.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which, in the midst of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth, and complicates with human fatality a destiny that is divine; so long as the three problems of the century - the degradation of man by the exploitation of his labour, the ruin of women by starvation and the atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words and from a still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, there should be a need for books such as this.”

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

The first symptom of love in a young man is timidity in a girl boldness.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love!

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

At the shrine of friendship never say die, let the wine of friendship never run dry. (Les Miserables)

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

He who opens a school door, closes a prison.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Wherever the Turkish hoof trods, no grass grows.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

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.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Common sense is in spite of, not the result of, education.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

If suffer we must, let's suffer on the heights.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

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.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable. There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

A compliment is like a kiss through a veil.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

A library implies an act of faith.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Can man, created good by God, be made wicked by man?

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

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

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Dream no small dreams. They have no power to stir the souls of men.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

For the heart, too, has its hunger.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Genius is a promontory jutting out of the infinite.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

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.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, his cloak was out at the elbows, the water passed through his shoes, - and the stars through his soul.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

If a writer wrote merely for his time, I would have to break my pen and throw it away.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

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

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Life is the flower for which love is the honey.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Life's greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Love is like a tree: it grows by itself, roots itself deeply in our being and continues to flourish over a heart in ruin. The inexplicable fact is that the blinder it is, the more tenacious it is. It is never stronger than when it is completely unreasonable.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Music expresses that which cannot remain silent and that which cannot be put into words.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Nothing else in the world...not all the armies...is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

One is not idle because one is absorbed. There is both visible and invisible labor. To contemplate is to toil. To think is to do.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

People do not lack strength, they lack will.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Popularity It is glory's small change.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Separated lovers cheat absence by a thousand fancies which have their own reality. They are prevented from seeing one another and they cannot write; nevertheless they find countless mysterious ways of corresponding, by sending each other the song of birds, the scent of flowers, the laughter of children, the light of the sun, the sighing of the wind, and the gleam of the stars --all the beauties of creation.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Should we continue to look upwards Is the light we can see in the sky one of those which will presently be extinguished The ideal is terrifying to behold, lost as it is in the depths, small, isolated, a pin-point, brilliant but threatened on all sides by the dark forces that surround it nevertheless, no more in danger than a star in the jaws of the clouds. (Les Miserables)

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

So different are the colours of life, as we look forward to the future, or backward to the past and so different the opinions and sentiments which this contrariety of appearance naturally produces, that the conversation of the old and young ends generally with contempt or pity on either side.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

The book which the reader now holds in his hands, from one end to the other, as a whole and in its details, whatever gaps, exceptions, or weaknesses it may contain, treats of the advance from evil to good, from injustice to justice, from falsity to truth, from darkness to daylight, from blind appetite to conscience, from decay to life, from bestiality to duty, from Hell to Heaven, from limbo to God. Matter itself is the starting-point, and the point of arrival is the soul. Hydra at the beginning, an angel at the end.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over we realize this: that the human race has been roughly handled, but that it has advanced.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

The future has several names. For the weak, it is impossible; for the fainthearted, it is unknown; but for the valiant, it is ideal.”

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

The greatest happiness of life it the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

The pupil dilates in darkness and in the end finds light, just as the soul dilates in misfortune and in the end finds God.”

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

The supreme happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

There is no such thing as a little country. The greatness of a people is no more determined by their numbers than the greatness of a man is by his height.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Thought is the labour of the intellect, reverie is its pleasure.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

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.

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

What a grand thing, to be loved What a grander thing still, to love

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

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."

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

When love has fused and mingled two beings in a sacred and angelic unity, the secret of life has been discovered so far as they are concerned; they are no longer anything more than the two boundaries of the same destiny; they are no longer anything but the two wings of the same spirit. Love, soar.”

– Victor Hugo

Rate it:

Quotes from the news wire:

I am really worried about the fact that it’s still on the loose because clearly, the people who have been managing this cat up until this point are not people who make good decisions, that cat looked like it had been out there in the front yard for a while before anybody even came looking for it so I am extremely worried about what’s going to happen to that cat or what that cat is going to do to somebody given the fact that nobody is turning them in.

– Victor Hugo

Found on FOX News 3 years ago

He kept eye contact, he backed away slowly, a tiger, if you look down, if you turn, if that neighbor had run back to his door – that triggers their instinct to kill.

– Victor Hugo

Found on FOX News 3 years ago

We are the ones who need help, gay people, people living with AIDS. When it comes to those things, the church has an attitude of intolerance, of disgust.

– Victor Hugo

Found on FOX News 7 years ago

Share your thoughts on Victor Hugo's quotes with the community:

0 Comments

Notify me of new comments via email.

Quote of the Day Today's Quote | Archive

Would you like us to send you a FREE inspiring quote delivered to your inbox daily?

Citation

Use the citation below to add this author page to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"Victor Hugo Quotes." Quotes.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 21 Jan. 2025. <https://www.quotes.net/authors/Victor+Hugo+Quotes>.

Missing a quote of Victor Hugo?

Know another good quote of Victor Hugo? Don't keep it to yourself!

The Web's Largest Resource for

Famous Quotes & Sayings

A Member Of The STANDS4 Network

Books related to

Victor Hugo

Les Miserables
$6.89

from $2.20
Notre-Dame of Paris
from $3.04
Les Miserables
$20.00

from $12.51
Les Miserables
$23.49

from $15.00
Victor Hugo’s Wondrous Feast
$18.59

from $14.11

Our favorite collection of

Famous Authors

Benjamin Franklin
1706 - 1790
Carl Gustav Jung
1875 - 1961
Mark Twain
1835 - 1910
Hippocrates
460 BC - 370 BC
William Shakespeare
1564 - 1616
Winston Churchill
1874 - 1965
Blaise Pascal
1623 - 1662

Browse Quotes.net

#A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Random New Quotes

Quiz

Are you a quotes master?

Who said, “Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate.”

A Christopher Reeve

B G.K. Chesterton

C C.S. Lewis

D Desmond Tutu