“From the depths of the gloom wherein you dwell, you do not see much more distinctly than we the radiant and distant portals of Eden. Only, the priests are mistaken. These holy portals are before and not behind us.”
Du fond de l'ombre où nous sommes et où vous êtes, vous ne voyez pas beaucoup plus distinctement que nous les radieuses et lointaines portes de l'éden. Seulement les prêtres se trompent. Ces portes saintes ne sont pas derrière nous, mais devant nous.
Letter To M. Daelli on Les Misérables (1862)
Original
Du fond de l'ombre où nous sommes et où vous êtes, vous ne voyez pas beaucoup plus distinctement que nous les radieuses et lointaines portes de l'éden. Seulement les prêtres se trompent. Ces portes saintes ne sont pas derrière nous, mais devant nous.
Letter To M. Daelli on Les Misérables (1862)
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Victor Hugo 308
French poet, novelist, and dramatist 1802–1885Related quotes

Source: At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends

Frequently quoted on social media, but was not written by Rumi in Persian.
Misattributed

"April", in Poems (1859)
Context: p>The irrevocable Hand
That opes the year's fair gate, doth ope and shut
The portals of our earthly destinies;
We walk through blindfold, and the noiseless doors
Close after us, for ever.Pause, my soul,
On these strange words — for ever — whose large sound
Breaks flood-like, drowning all the petty noise
Our human moans make on the shores of Time.
O Thou that openest, and no man shuts;
That shut'st, and no man opens — Thee we wait!</p
“Child, child, do you not see? For each of us comes a time when we must be more than what we are.”
Source: The Chronicles of Prydain (1964–1968), Book III: The Castle of Llyr (1966), Chapter 1
Source: The Black Cauldron

The New Testament for English Readers (1865), Romans 8:26, p. 73, footnote.

“…from some distant memory as she stood there before you.”
uStream Sheen's Korner March 2011

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 486.