Quotes by Victor Hugo

About Victor Hugo:

Victor Marie Hugo is considered one of the greatest and best known French writers. In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem. Outside France, his best-known works are the acclaimed novels Les Misérables, 1862, and Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831 (known in English as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame). He also produced more than 4,000 drawings, which have since been admired for their beauty, and earned widespread respect as a campaigner for social causes such as the abolition of the death penalty.
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

Melancholy is the happiness of being sad.

Victor Hugo

Tall and thin, Mademoiselle Baptistine was a pale and gentle person. She was the incarnation of the word 'respectable,' whereas to be 'venerable,' a woman should lso be a mother.

Victor Hugo

He fell to the seat, she by his side. There were no more words. The stars were beginning to shine. How was it that their lips met? How is it that the birds sing, the the snow melts, that the rose opens, that May blooms, that the dawn whitens behind t...

Victor Hugo

He who contemplates the depths of Paris is seized with vertigo. Nothing is more fantastic. Nothing is more tragic. Nothing is more sublime.

Victor Hugo

Ce que Paris conseille, l'Europe le médite ; ce que Paris commence, l'Europe le continue.

Victor Hugo

At the side of Enjolras, who represented the logic of revolution, was Combeferre, representing its philosophy. The difference between logic and philosophy is that one can decide upon war, whereas the other can only be fulfilled by peace.

Victor Hugo

For a person's nature,like a rock,can be drilled into by drops of water.For a person's nature,like a rock,can be drilled into by drops of water.For a person's nature,like a rock,can be drilled into by drops of water.For a person's nature,like a rock,...

Victor Hugo

Certainly, I approve of political opinions, but there are people who do not know where to stop.

Victor Hugo

To attempt, to brave, to persist, and persevere, to be faithful to one's self, to wrestle with destiny, to astound the catastrophe by the slight fear which is causes us, now to confront unjust power, again to insult intoxicated victory, to hold firm ...

Victor Hugo

He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.

Victor Hugo

La lumière est dans le livre. Ouvrez le livre tout grand. Laissez-le rayonner, laissez-le faire.

Victor Hugo

So bring me this man, trembling and shivering from head to foot; let me fall into his arms or down at his knees; he will weep and we shall weep, he will be eloquent and I shall be comforted, and my heart shall melt into his, he will take my soul, and...

Victor Hugo

Every blade has two edges; he who wounds with one wounds himself with the other.

Victor Hugo

Artistes, orateurs, prophètes, hommes-colosses comme Danton, hommes-enfants comme Cloots, gladiateurs et philosophes, tous allaient au même but, le progrès. Rien ne les déconcertait. La grandeur de la Convention fut de chercher la quantité de r�...

Victor Hugo

Les révolutions sont de magnifiques improvisatrices. Un peu échevelées quelquefois.

Victor Hugo

Le livre, comme livre, appartient à l'auteur, mais comme pensée, il appartient -le mot n'est pas trop vaste- au genre humain. Toutes les intelligences y ont droit. Si l'un des deux droits, le droit de l'écrivain et le droit de l'esprit humain, dev...

Victor Hugo

Produce una inmensa tristeza pensar que la naturaleza habla mientras el género humano no escucha.

Victor Hugo

These two beings, who had loved each other so exclusively, and with so touching a love, and who had lived so long for each other, were now suffering beside one another and through one another; without speaking of it, without harsh feeling, and smilin...

Victor Hugo

Let us reflect, if we wish to be brilliant. Too much improvisation empties the mind in a stupid way. Running beer gathers no froth. No haste, gentlemen.

Victor Hugo

Thought is the toil of the intelligence, revery its voluptuousness. To replace thought with revery is to confound a poison with a food.

Victor Hugo

Winter changes into stone the water of heaven and the heart of man.

Victor Hugo

Author Bio

  • NameVictor Hugo
  • DescriptionFrench poet, novelist, and dramatist
  • AliasesVictor Marie Hugo
  • BornFebruary 26, 1802
  • DiedMay 22, 1885
  • CountryFrance
  • ProfessionPoet; Politician; Playwright; Novelist; Draughtsperson; Librettist; Essayist; Memoirist; Writer