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Victor Hugo Quotes
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308 Quotes to Uplift Your Spirit and Guide You with Timeless Wisdom

Explore Victor Hugo's profound insights and timeless wisdom. Be inspired by powerful quotes on belief, love, and more. Let the words of this literary icon uplift your spirit and guide you.

Victor-Marie Hugo was a highly acclaimed French Romantic writer and politician, hailed as one of the greatest French writers of all time. With a literary career spanning over six decades, he excelled in various genres and forms of writing. His notable works include the novels "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame" and "Les Misérables," as well as poetry collections like "Les Contemplations" and "La Légende des siècles." Furthermore, his influence extended beyond literature, inspiring musical adaptations such as the opera Rigoletto and the musicals Les Misérables and Notre-Dame de Paris. Additionally, Hugo championed social causes like the elimination of capital punishment and showcased his artistic talents through over 4,000 drawings.

Initially a staunch royalist, Hugo's perspectives underwent a significant transformation as he grew older. He developed an unwavering support for republicanism and actively engaged in political activities, serving both as a deputy and a senator. Throughout his work, he fearlessly addressed pressing political and social issues while embodying the artistic trends prevalent during his era. His resolute stance against absolute power coupled with his literary achievements earned him recognition as a national hero.

Victor Hugo passed away on May 22, 1885 at the age of 83. His legacy was honored with an elaborate state funeral held at the Panthéon in Paris, which drew an astounding attendance of over two million people—the largest gathering in French history.

✵ 26. February 1802 – 22. May 1885  •  Other names Victor Marie Hugo, Виктор Гюго
Victor Hugo photo
Victor Hugo: 308 quotes51 likes

Victor Hugo Quotes

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

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Let us study things that are no more. It is necessary to understand them, if only to avoid them.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

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

Victor Hugo

“It is not easy to keep silent when silence is a lie.”

Victor Hugo

“The soul helps the body, and at certain moments raises it. It is the only bird that sustains its cage.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Miserables

“Marius and Cosette were in the dark in regard to each other. They did not speak, they did not bow, they were not acquainted; they saw each other; and, like the stars in the sky separated by millions of leagues, they lived by gazing upon each other.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“If you wish to understand what Revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to understand what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“I wanted to see you again, touch you, know who you were, see if I would find you identical with the ideal image of you which had remained with me and perhaps shatter my dream with the aid of reality.

-Claude Frollo”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre Dame

“If people did not love one another, I really don't see what use there would be in having any spring.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness. (Monseigneur Bienvenu in _Les Miserables_)”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Diamonds are to be found only in the darkness of the earth, and truth in the darkness of the mind.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“… But listen, there will be more joy in heaven over the tears of a repentant sinner than over the white robes of a hundred just men.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Be like the bird that, passing on her flight awhile on boughs too slight, feels them give way beneath her, and yet sings, knowing that she hath wings.”

Victor Hugo

“There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“The first symptom of true love in a man is timidity, in a young woman, boldness. This is surprising, and yet nothing is more simple. It is the two sexes tending to approach each other and assuming each the other's qualities.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Love is the only future God offers.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“The beautiful is as useful as the useful." He added after a moment’s silence, "Perhaps more so.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“He did not study God; he was dazzled by him.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Faith is necessary to men; woe to him who believes in nothing!”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Fashions have done more harm than revolutions.”

Victor Hugo

“Spira, spera.

(breathe, hope)”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

“He loved books; books are cold but safe friends.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Variant: He was fond of books, for they are cool and sure friends
Source: Les Misérables

“Nothing is more imminent than the impossible… what we must always foresee is the unforeseen.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“God knows better than we do what we need.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“I'd like a drink. I desire to forget life. Life is a hideous invention by somebody I don't know. It doesn't last, and it's good for nothing. You break your neck simply living.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“… mothers are often fondest of the child which has caused them the greatest pain.”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

“Curiosity is gluttony. To see is to devour.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“A one-eyed man is much more incomplete than a blind man, for he knows what it is that's lacking.”

Victor Hugo book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

“This first glance of a soul which does not yet know itself is like dawn in the heavens; it is the awakening of something radiant and unknown.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“What happened between those two beings? Nothing. They were adoring one another.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“As with stomachs, we should pity minds that do not eat.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: 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 book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Success is an ugly thing. Men are deceived by its false resemblances to merit…. They confound the brilliance of the firmament with the star-shaped footprints of a duck in the mud.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Sleep comes more easily than it returns.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“Morality is truth in full bloom.”

Victor Hugo

“She loved with so much passion as she loved with ignorance. She did not know whether it were good or evil, beneficent or dangerous, necessary or accidental, eternal or transitory, permitted or prohibited: she loved.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“One can no more keep the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. For a sailor, this is called the tide; in the case of the guilty it is called remorse. God stirs up the soul as well as the ocean.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

“It was SHE. Whoever has loved knows all the radiant meaning contained in the three letters of this word ‘she.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables