Victor Hugo

Les Miserables

Modern influential 78 sayings

Sayings by Victor Hugo

Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the grander view?

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume I, Book 7, Chapter 3
Humorous Unverifiable

To forget is to sleep.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume I, Book 5, Chapter 4
Humorous Unverifiable

A good laugh is a mighty good thing, a rather too scarce a good thing.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume III, Book 2, Chapter 1
Humorous Unverifiable

The human soul has greater need of the ideal than of the real. It is by the real that we exist; it is by the ideal that we live.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume V, Book 1, Chapter 5
Humorous Unverifiable

The healthy stomach is a good cook.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume I, Book 2, Chapter 3
Humorous Unverifiable

No army can stop an idea whose time has come.

1877 — Histoire d'un crime
Humorous Unverifiable

The word 'love' is not a verb.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume IV, Book 1, Chapter 1
Humorous Unverifiable

The greatest truths are the simplest, and so are the greatest men.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume I, Book 2, Chapter 3
Humorous Unverifiable

There are no such things as small countries. The greatness of a people is no more determined by the number of its inhabitants than the greatness of a man is determined by his height.

1878 — Speech at the International Literary Congress
Humorous Unverifiable

When a man knows how to love, he knows how to live.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume IV, Book 1, Chapter 1
Humorous Unverifiable

The soul's darkest night is not the one before death, but the one before birth.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume I, Book 7, Chapter 3
Humorous Unverifiable

What makes night within us may leave stars.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume I, Book 7, Chapter 3
Humorous Unverifiable

The more you are in love, the more you are in danger.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume IV, Book 6, Chapter 1
Humorous Unverifiable

The intelligent man finds everything absurd.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume I, Book 7, Chapter 3
Humorous Unverifiable

The greatest strength is gentleness.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume III, Book 2, Chapter 1
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If I am to die, I will die laughing.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume III, Book 2, Chapter 1
Humorous Unverifiable

The most beautiful of all things is a beautiful woman with a beautiful mind.

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume IV, Book 1, Chapter 1
Humorous Unverifiable

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

1862 — Les Misérables, Volume IV, Book 6, Chapter 1
Humorous Unverifiable