“What makes night within us may leave stars.”
Variant: Whatever causes night in our souls may leave stars.
Source: Ninety-Three
Victor Hugo: Trending quotes
Victor Hugo trending quotes. Read the latest quotes in collectionVictor Hugo: 616 quotes51 likes
“There are things stronger than the strongest man…”
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Source: Les Misérables
“To die is nothing; but it is terrible not to live.”
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Variant: It is nothing to die. It is frightful not to live.
Source: Les Misérables
“He who opens a school, closes a prison”
Also cited as Opening a school is closing a prison <br class="br">This quotation has been attributed to Victor Hugo since the nineteenth century, but the earliest citations attribute the saying instead to French education minister Victor Duruy: <br class="br">Déjà M. Duruy avait posé en fait, quouvrir une école, c'est fermer une prison (1865) <br class="br">English translation: M. Duruy had already suggested that opening a school is closing a prison <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Source: Journal des Economistes, March 1865, p. 489 http://hdl.handle.net/2027/nyp.33433022399574?urlappend=%3Bseq=495
“These two halves of God, the Pope and the emperor.”
Ces deux moitiés de Dieu, le pape et l'empereur! <br class="br">Hernani (1830), Act IV, Scene II http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Hernani#ACTE_4
“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.”
Victor Hugo book William Shakespeare
Ce qu’on ne peut dire et ce qu’on ne peut taire, la musique l’exprime.
Part I, Book II, Chapter IV
William Shakespeare (1864)
Variant: Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent
Source: Hugo's Works: William Shakespeare
Part 2, Book 1, Ch. 2
Variant translation: What makes night within us may leave stars.
Source: Ninety-Three (1874)
Context: Cimourdain was a pure-minded but gloomy man. He had "the absolute" within him. He had been a priest, which is a solemn thing. Man may have, like the sky, a dark and impenetrable serenity; that something should have caused night to fall in his soul is all that is required. Priesthood had been the cause of night within Cimourdain. Once a priest, always a priest.
Whatever causes night in our souls may leave stars. Cimourdain was full of virtues and truth, but they shine out of a dark background.
“When you get an idea into your head you find it in everything.”
Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
“He never went out without a book under his arm, and he often came back with two.”
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Source: Les Misérables
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Variant: I met in the street a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat was threadbare - there were holes at his elbows; the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul.
Source: Les Misérables
“To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better.”
Mettre tout en équilibre, c'est bien; mettre tout en harmonie, c'est mieux. <br class="br">Quatre-vingt-treize (Ninety-Three) (1874), Book VII, Chapter V http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Quatre-vingt-treize_-_III%2C_7#V_LE_CACHOT <br class="br">Ninety-Three (1874)
“Laughter is sunshine, it chases winter from the human face.”
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Variant: A smile is the same as sunshine; it banishes winter from the human countenance.
Source: Les Misérables
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Variant: To love or have loved is all-sufficing. We must not ask for more. No other pearl is to be found in the shadowfolds of life. To love is an accomplishment.
Source: Les Misérables
“If I speak, I am condemned.
If I stay silent, I am damned!”
Victor Hugo book Les Misérables
Source: Les Misérables
Variant: There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees.