Top 990 Quotes & Sayings by Victor Hugo - Page 4

Thought is more than a right - it is the very breath of man. Whoever fetters thought attacks man himself. To speak, to write, to publish, are things, so far as the right is concerned, absolutely identical. They are the ever-enlarging circles of intelligence in action; they are the sonorous waves of thought.

There are no rules, no models; rather, there are no rules other than the general laws of Nature.

Love is jealous, and ingenious in self-torture in proportion as it is pure and intense.

There have been in this century only one great man and one great thing: Napoleon and liberty. For want of the great man, let us have the great thing.

Prayer is an august avowal of ignorance.

One sometimes says: 'He killed himself because he was bored with life.' One ought rather to say: 'He killed himself because he was bored by lack of life.'

Scepticism, that dry caries of the intelligence.

Rhyme, that enslaved queen, that supreme charm of our poetry, that creator of our meter.

Do not let it be your aim to be something, but to be someone.

The ideal and the beautiful are identical; the ideal corresponds to the idea, and beauty to form; hence idea and substance are cognate.

Because one doesn't like the way things are is no reason to be unjust towards God.

A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it.

Every diminution of the liberty of the press is followed by a diminution of civilization. Wherever we see the freedom of the press interfered with, there we see the nutrition of the human family interrupted.

Style is the substance of the subject called unceasingly to the surface.

One believes others will do what he will do to himself.

The omnipotence of evil has never resulted in anything but fruitless efforts. Our thoughts always escape from whoever tries to smother them.

Nihilism has no substance. There is no such thing as nothingness, and zero does not exist. Everything is something. Nothing is nothing.

Knowledge is a weight added to conscience.

If you are stone, be magnetic; if a plant, be sensitive; but if you are human be love.

A smile is the same as sunshine; it banishes winter from the human countenance.

Daring is the price of progress. All splendid conquests are the prize of boldness, more or less.

God is behind everything, but everything hides God.

If I speak, I am condemned. If I stay silent, I am damned!

If you don't build castles in the air you won't build anything on the ground.

God has set his intentions in the flowers, in the dawn, in the spring, it is his will that we should love.

To die is nothing; but it is terrible not to live.

Go out in the world and work like money doesn't matter, sing as if no one is listening, love as if you have never been hurt, and dance as if no one is watching.

Hypocrisy is nothing, in fact, but a horrible hopefulness.

Reality in strong doses frightens.

He never went out without a book under his arm, and he often came back with two.

Sacrificing the earth for paradise is giving up the substance for the shadow.

Every man is a book in which God himself writes.

It is not so easy to keep silent when the silence is a lie.

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.

Those who do not weep, do not see.

If you look in the eyes of the young, you see flame. If you look in the eyes of the old, you see light.

Our mind is enriched by what we receive, our heart by what we give.

To know, to think, to dream. That is everything.

Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.

No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.

Nothing makes a man so adventurous as an empty pocket.

Love would never be a promise of a rose garden unless it is showered with light of faith, water of sincerity and air of passion. Sometimes we make love with our eyes. Sometimes we make love with our hands. Sometimes we make love with our bodies. Always we make love with our hearts. If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you've made me smile, the entire evening sky would be in the palm of my hand. To love another person is to see the face of God.

He who is not master of his own thoughts is not accountable for his own deeds.

The future has many names: For the weak, it means the unattainable. For the fearful, it means the unknown. For the courageous, it means opportunity.

Not being heard is no reason for silence.

I think, therefore I doubt.

Teach the ignorant as much as you can; society is culpable in not providing a free education for all and it must answer for the night which it produces. If the soul is left in darkness sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.

Love is like a tree, it grows of its own accord, it puts down deep roots into our whole being.

The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness.

Don't educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy, so they know the value of things, not the price.

Between the government which does evil and the people who accept it - there is a certain shameful solidarity.

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.

You look at a star for two reasons, because it is luminous, and because it is impenetrable. You have beside you a sweeter radiance and a greater mystery, woman.

Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves.

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

In joined hands there is still some token of hope, in the clenched fist none.

To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.

To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better.

The future has several names. For the weak, it is impossible; for the fainthearted, it is unknown; but for the valiant, it is ideal.

There are many tongues to talk, and but few heads to think.