“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.”

Source: Les Misérables

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "This first glance of a soul which does not yet know itself is like dawn in the heavens; it is the awakening of somethin…" by Victor Hugo?
Victor Hugo photo
Victor Hugo 308
French poet, novelist, and dramatist 1802–1885

Related quotes

Tzvetan Todorov photo

“Nothing is more commonplace than the reading experience, and yet nothing is more unknown. Reading is such a matter of course that at first glance it seems there is nothing to say about it.”

Tzvetan Todorov (1939–2017) Bulgarian historian, philosopher, structuralist literary critic, sociologist and essayist

Reading as Construction (1980)

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“Father in heaven, when the thought of thee awakens in our soul”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Journals and Papers IIA320
1840s, The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1840s
Context: Father in heaven, when the thought of thee awakens in our soul, let it not waken as an agitated bird which flutters confusedly about, but as a child waking from sleep with a celestial smile.

Adyashanti photo
Adi Shankara photo
Honoré de Balzac photo

“Men are like that, they can resist sound argument, yet yield to a glance.”

Les hommes sont ainsi faits, ils résistent à une discussion sérieuse et tombent sous un regard.
"Le Contrat de mariage," http://books.google.com/books?id=3ihgAAAAcAAJ&q=%22Les+hommes+sont+ainsi+faits+ils+r%C3%A9sistent+%C3%A0+une+discussion+s%C3%A9rieuse+et+tombent+sous%22+%22regard%22&pg=PA78#v=onepage Scènes de la vie privée (1835)

Gottfried Leibniz photo

“Music is a hidden arithmetic exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is counting.”
Musica est exercitium arithmeticae occultum nescientis se numerare animi.

Gottfried Leibniz (1646–1716) German mathematician and philosopher

Letter to Christian Goldbach, April 17, 1712.
Arthur Schopenhauer paraphrased this quotation in the first book of Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung: Musica est exercitium metaphysices occultum nescientis se philosophari animi. (Music is a hidden metaphysical exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is philosophizing.)

George William Russell photo

“Our true hearts are forever lonely:
A wistfulness is in our thought:
Our lights are like the dawns which only
Seem bright to us and yet are not.”

George William Russell (1867–1935) Irish writer, editor, critic, poet, and artistic painter

By Still Waters (1906)

Catherine of Genoa photo
Joseph Addison photo

“Their courage dwells not in a troubled flood
Of mounting spirits, and fermenting blood:
Lodged in the soul, with virtue overruled,
Inflamed by reason, and by reason cooled,
In hours of peace content to be unknown.
And only in the field of battle shown:
To souls like these, in mutual friendship joined,
Heaven dares intrust the cause of humankind.”

Source: The Campaign (1704), Line 101.
Context: Great souls by instinct to each other turn,
Demand alliance, and in friendship burn;
A sudden friendship, while with stretched-out rays
They meet each other, mingling blaze with blaze.
Polished in courts, and hardened in the field,
Renowned for conquest, and in council skilled,
Their courage dwells not in a troubled flood
Of mounting spirits, and fermenting blood:
Lodged in the soul, with virtue overruled,
Inflamed by reason, and by reason cooled,
In hours of peace content to be unknown.
And only in the field of battle shown:
To souls like these, in mutual friendship joined,
Heaven dares intrust the cause of humankind.

Related topics