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Men Like Me Are Impossible Until The Day When They Become Necessary.
-Victor Hugo
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Men Like Me Are

Victor Hugo
...
Men Like Me Are Impossible Until The Day When They Become Necessary.

Understanding the Quote: "men like me are impossible until the day when they become necessary...."

This quote by Victor Hugo reflects deeply on the theme of men. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Men, Impossible, Like Me, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Victor Hugo interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo is celebrated for insightful thoughts on men and impossible. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

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Topic
Men
Impossible
Like Me
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Algebra Applies To The Clouds.
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The Hatred Of Luxury Is Not An Intelligent Hatred. It Implies A Hatred Of Arts.
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Scepticism, That Dry Caries Of The Intelligence.
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He Was Fond Of Books, For They Are Cool And Sure Friends
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Life's Greatest Happiness Is To Be Convinced We Are Loved.
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...man Lives By Affirmation Even More Than He Does By Bread.
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Justice Has Its Anger, My Lord Bishop, And The Wrath Of Justice Is An Element Of Progress. Whatever Else May Be Said Of It, The French Revolution Was The Greatest Step Forward By Mankind Since The Coming Of Christ. It Was Unfinished, I Agree, But Still It Was Sublime. It Released The Untapped Springs Of Society; It Softened Hearts, Appeased, Tranquilized, Enlightened, And Set Flowing Through The World The Tides Of Civilization. It Was Good. The French Revolution Was The Anointing Of Humanity.
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I'd Rather Be Hissed At For A Good Verse, Than Applauded For A Bad One.
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I Am In The Night. There Is A Being Who Has Gone Away And Carried The Heavens With Her. Oh! To Be Laid Side By Side In The Same Tomb, Hand Clasped In Hand, And From Time To Time, In The Darkness, To Caress A Finger Gently, That Would Suffice For My Eternity.
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Dirt Has Been Shrewdly Termed "misplaced Material.
Dirt
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Amnesty Is As Good For Those Who Give It As For Those Who Receive It. It Has The Admirable Quality Of Bestowing Mercy On Both Sides.
Forgiveness
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We Say And Exclaim Within Ourselves Without Breaking Silence, In A Tumult Where Everything Speaks Except Our Mouths. The Realities Of The Soul Are None The Less Real For Being Invisible And Impalpable.
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If A Writer Wrote Merely For His Time, I Would Have To Break My Pen And Throw It Away.
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Idleness Is A Mother. She Has A Son, Robbery, And A Daughter, Hunger.
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Equality Does Not Mean That All Plants Must Grow To The Same Height - A Society Of Tall Grass And Dwarf Trees, A Jostle Of Conflicting Jealousies. It Means, In Civic Terms, An Equal Outlet For All Talents; In Political Terms, That All Votes Will Carry The Same Weight; And In Religious Terms That All Beliefs Will Enjoy Equal Rights.
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Revolution Is The Larva Of Civilization.
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It May Be Remarked In Passing That Success Is An Ugly Thing. Men Are Deceived By Its False Resemblences To Merit.
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The Poetic Element Lying Hidden In Most Women Is The Source Of Their Magnetic Attraction.
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He Who Contemplates The Depths Of Paris Is Seized With Vertigo. Nothing Is More Fantastic. Nothing Is More Tragic. Nothing Is More Sublime.
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The English Took The Eagle And Austrians The Eaglet. [fr., L'angleterre Prit L'aigle, Et L'autriche L'aiglon.]
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Strong And Bitter Words Indicate A Weak Cause.
Strong
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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.
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There Is Such A Thing As The Pressure Of Darkness.
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We Must Never Fear Robbers Or Murderers. They Are Dangers From Outside, Small Dangers. It Is Ourselves We Have To Fear. Prejudice Is The Real Robber, Vice The Real Murderer. Why Should We Be Troubled By A Threat To Our Person Or Our Pocket? What We Have To Beware Of Is The Threat To Our Souls'.
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There Is A Determined Though Unseen Bravery That Defends Itself Foot By Foot In The Darkness Against The Fatal Invasions Of Necessity And Dishonesty. Noble And Mysterious Triumphs That No Eye Sees, And No Fame Rewards, And No Flourish Of Triumph Salutes. Life, Misfortunes, Isolation, Abandonment, Poverty, Are Battlefields That Have Their Heroes; Obscure Heroes, Sometimes Greater Than The Illustrious Heroes.
Hero
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Houses Are Like The Human Beings That Inhabit Them.
House
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Die, Very Good, But Do Not Make Others Die. Suicides Like The One Which Is About To Take Place Here Are Sublime, But Suicide Is Restricted, And Does Not Allow Of Extension; And So Soon As It Affects Your Neighbors, Suicide Becomes Murder.
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Joy Is The Reflex Of Terror.
Joy
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The Most Powerful Symptom Of Love Is A Tenderness Which Becomes At Times Almost Insupportable.
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All Roads Are Blocked To A Philosophy Which Reduces Everything To The Word 'no.' To 'no' There Is Only One Answer And That Is 'yes.
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Not Being Heard Is No Reason For Silence.
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What Is The Cat?" He Exclaimed. "it Is A Corrective. God, Having Made The Mouse, Said, 'i've Made A Blunder.' And He Made The Cat. The Cat Is The Erratum Of The Mouse. The Mouse, Plus The Cat, Is The Revised And Corrected Proof Of Creation.
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I Put A Phrygian Cap On The Old Dictionary.
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Those Who Every Morning Plan The Transactions Of The Day And Follow Out That Plan Carry A Thread That Will Guide Them Through The Labyrinth Of The Most Busy Life. The Orderly Arrangement Of Their Time Is Like A Ray Of Light Which Darts Itself Through All Their Occupations. But Where No Plan Is Laid, Where The Disposal Of Time Is Surrendered Merely To The Chance Of Incidents, Chaos Will Soon Reign.
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I Was Dying When You Came.
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The Aim Of Art Is Almost Divine: To Bring To Life Again If It Is Writing History, To Create If It Is Writing Poetry.
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To Gaze Into The Depths Of The Sea Is, In The Imagination, Like Beholding The Vast Unknown, And From Its Most Terrible Point Of View. The Submarine Gulf Is Analogous To The Realm Of Night And Dreams. There Also Is Sleep, Unconsciousness, Or At Least Apparent Unconsciousness, Of Creation. There In The Awful Silence And Darkness, The Rude First Forms Of Life, Phantomlike, Demoniacal, Pursue Their Horrible Instincts.
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There Is One Thing Stronger Than All The Armies In The World, And That Is An Idea Whose Time As Come.
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Nothing Is More Dangerous Than Discontinued Labor; It Is Habit Lost. A Habit Easy To Abandon, Difficult To Resume.
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There Exists, At The Bottom Of All Abasement And Misfortune, A Last Extreme Which Rebels And Joins Battle With The Forces Of Law And Respectability In A Desperate Struggle, Waged Partly By Cunning And Partly By Violence, At Once Sick And Ferocious, In Which It Attacks The Prevailing Social Order With The Pin-pricks Of Vice And The Hammer-blows Of Crime.
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Ah," Cried Gavroche, "what Does This Mean? It Rains Again! ...if This Continues, I Withdraw My Subscription.
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Without Vanity, Without Coquetry, Without Curiosity, In A Word, Without The Fall, Woman Would Not Be Woman. Much Of Her Grace Is In Her Frailty.
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But Secondly You Say 'society Must Exact Vengeance, And Society Must Punish'. Wrong On Both Counts. Vengeance Comes From The Individual And Punishment From God.
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Love Each Other Dearly Always. There Is Scarcely Anything Else In The World But That: To Love One Another.
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A Library Implies An Act Of Faith Which Generations, Still In Darkness Hid, Sign In Their Night In Witness Of The Dawn.
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For Dogs We Kings Should Have Lions, And For Cats, Tigers. The Great Benefits A Crown.
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Never Laugh At Those Who Suffer; Suffer Sometimes Those Who Laugh.
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A Phenomenon Often Seen. A Sceptic Adhering To A Believer; That Is As Simple As The Law Of The Complementary Colours. What We Lack Attracts Us. Nobody Loves The Light Like The Blind Man.
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Vengeance Comes From The Individual And Punishment From God.
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God Put In Man Thought; Society, Action; Nature, Revery.
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God Will Bless You,' Said He, 'you Are An Angel Since You Take Care Of The Flowers.' 'no,' She Replied. 'i Am The Devil, But That's All The Same To Me.
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Often The Losing Of A Battle Leads To The Winning Of Progress. Less Glory But Greater Liberty: The Drum Is Silent And The Voices Of Reason Can Be Heard.
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Reaction - A Boat Which Is Going Against The Current But Which Does Not Prevent The River From Flowing On.
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It Is In The Name Of Moses That Bellarmin Thunderstrikes Galileo; And This Great Vulgarizer Of The Great Seeker Copernicus, Galileo, The Old Man Of Truth, The Magian Of The Heavens, Was Reduced To Repeating On His Knees Word For Word After The Inquisitor This Formula Of Shame: "corde Sincera Et Fide Non Ficta Abjuro Maledico Et Detestor Supradictos Errores Et Hereses." Falsehood Put An Ass's Hood On Science.
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In Love, Such A Word, Whispered, Is A Mysterious Kiss Of The Soul To The Soul.
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A Man Trying To Escape Never Thinks Himself Sufficiently Concealed.
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Crime Is Redeemed By Remorse, But Not By A Blow Of The Axe Or Slipknot. Blood Has To Be Washed By Tears But Not By Blood.
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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.
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The Memory Of An Absent Person Shines In The Deepest Recesses Of The Heart, Shining The More Brightly The More Wholly Its Object Has Vanished: A Light On The Horizon Of The Despairing, Darkened Spirit; A Star Gleaming In Our Inward Night.
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Hypocrisy Is Nothing, In Fact, But A Horrible Hopefulness.
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Nothing Can Be More Depressing Than To Expose, Naked To The Light Of Thought, The Hideous Growth Of Argot. Indeed It Is Like A Sort Of Repellent Animal Intended To Dwell In Darkness Which Has Been Dragged Out Of Its Cloaca. One Seems To See A Horned And Living Creature Viciously Struggling To Be Restored To The Place Where It Belongs. One Word Is Like A Claw, Another Like A Sightless And Bleeding Eye; And There Are Phrases Which Clutch Like The Pincers Of A Crab. And All Of It Is Alive With The Hideous Vitality Of Things That Have Organized Themselves Amid Disorganization.
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There Are No Rules For Felicity.
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When People Look Back At Their Childhood Or Youth, Their Wistfulness Comes From The Memory, Not Of What Their Lives Had Been In Those Years, But Of What Life Had Then Promised To Be. The Expectation Of Some Indefinable Splendor, Of The Unusual, The Exciting, The Great Is An Attribute Of Youth And The Process Of Aging Is The Process Of That Expectations' Gradual Extinction. One Does Not Have To Let It Happen. But That Fire Dies For Lack Of Fuel, Under The Gray Weight Of Disappointments.
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These Greek Capitals, Black With Age, And Quite Deeply Graven In The Stone, With I Know Not What Signs Peculiar To Gothic Calligraphy Imprinted Upon Their Forms And Upon Their Attitudes, As Though With The Purpose Of Revealing That It Had Been A Hand Of The Middle Ages Which Had Inscribed Them There, And Especially The Fatal And Melancholy Meaning Contained In Them, Struck The Author Deeply.
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It Is An Unpleasant Thing To Go To Bed Without Supper, It Is A Still Less Pleasant Thing Not To Sup And Not To Know Where One Is To Sleep.
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In Winter There Is No Heat, No Light, No Noon, Evening Touches Morning, There Is Fog, And Mist, The Window Is Frosted, And You Cannot See Clearly. The Sky Is But The Mouth Of A Cave. The Whole Day Is The Cave.... Frightful Season! Winter Changes Into Stone The Water Of Heaven And The Heart Of Man.
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Wisdom And Eloquence Are Not Always United.
Wisdom
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There Comes An Hour When Protest No Longer Suffices; After Philosophy There Must Be Action; The Strong Hand Finishes What The Idea Has Sketched.
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Hands
So A Voice In The Mountain Is Enough To Let Loose An Avalanche. A Word Too Much May Be Followed By A Caving In. If The Word Had Not Been Spoken, It Would Not Have Happened.
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Voice
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No Army Can Withstand The Strength Of An Idea Whose Time Has Come.
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A Fall From Such A Height Is Rarely Straight Downwards.
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Love, Thine Is The Future. Death, I Use Thee, But I Hate Thee. Citizens, There Shall Be In The Future Neither Darkness Nor Thunderbolts; Neither Ferocious Ignorance Nor Blood For Blood.
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Blood
If You Are Leaving That Sorrowful Place With Hate And Anger Against Men, You Are Worthy Of Compassion; If You Leave It With Good Will, Gentleness And Peace, You Are Better Than Any Of Us.
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The Realities Of Life Do Not Allow Themselves To Be Forgotten.
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We Should Judge A Man Much More Surely From What He Dreams Than From What He Thinks.
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Too Much Improvisation Leaves The Mind Stupidly Void.
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The Truth Of An Upright Man Must Be Accepted On His Own Terms. Moreover, Since Natures Vary, We Must Agree That All The Beauties Of Human Excellence May Be Fostered By Faiths That We Do Not Share.
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The Quantity Of Civilization Is Measured By The Quality Of Imagination.
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Often When We Think We Are Knotting One Thread, We Are Tying Quite Another.
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Woman, Nude, Is The Blue Sky. Clouds And Garments Are An Obstacle To Contemplation. Beauty And Infinity Would Be Gazed Upon Unveiled.
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Women
Clouds
To Contemplate Is To Look At Shadows.
Shadow
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Contemplating
Are You Afraid Of The Good You Might Do?
Might
You Ask Me What Forces Me To Speak? A Strange Thing; My Conscience.
Honesty
Strange
Speak
If You Don't Build Castles In The Air You Won't Build Anything On The Ground.
Air
Castles
Castles In The Air
Revolutions Spring Not From Accident, But From Necessity. A Revolution Is A Return From The Factitious To The Real. It Takes Place Because It Must.
Spring
Real
Return
The Ox Suffers, The Cart Complains.
Suffering
Complaining
Carts
Forty Is The Old Age Of Youth; Fifty The Youth Of Old Age.
Birthday
Health
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Every Idea Must Have A Visible Enfolding.
Ideas
Visible
I Think I Missed My Calling. I Should Have Been An Interior Decorator.
Thinking
Should Have
Calling
He Left Her. She Was Dissatisfied With Him. He Had Preferred To Incur Her Anger Rather Than Cause Her Pain. He Had Kept All The Pain For Himself.
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No Man Is More Unhappy Than The One Who Is Never In Adversity; The Greatest Affliction Of Life Is Never To Be Afflicted.
Adversity
Men
Unhappy
I Exist," Murmurs Someone Whose Name Is Everyone. "i'm Young And In Love; I Am Old And I Want Rest; I Work, I Prosper, I Do Good Business, I Have Houses To Rent, Money In State Securities; I Am Happy, I Have Wife And Children; I Like All These Things And I Want To Go On Living, So Leave Me Alone."... There Are Moments When All This Casts A Deep Chill On The Large-minded Pioneers Of The Human Race.
Children
Race
Names
A Man Without A Woman Is Like A Pistol Without A Trigger; It Is The Woman Who Makes The Man Go Off.
Men
Pistols
Triggers
Love Is A Portion Of The Soul Itself, And It Is Of The Same Nature As The Celestial Breathing Of The Atmosphere Of Paradise.
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Life
Soul And Body
All That Was Neither A City, Nor A Church, Nor A River, Nor Color, Nor Light, Nor Shadow: It Was Reverie. For A Long Time, I Remained Motionless, Letting Myself Be Penetrated Gently By This Unspeakable Ensemble, By The Serenity Of The Sky And The Melancholy Of The Moment. I Do Not Know What Was Going On In My Mind, And I Could Not Express It; It Was One Of Those Ineffable Moments When One Feels Something In Himself Which Is Going To Sleep And Something Which Is Awakening.
Sleep
Color
Sky
I Believe That Pity Is A Law Like Justice, And That Kindness Is A Duty Like Uprightness. That Which Is Weak Has A Right To The Kindness And Pity Of That Which Is Strong. In The Relations Of Man With The Animals...there Is A Great Ethic, Scarcely Perceived As Yet, Which Will At Length Break Through Into The Light, And Which Will Be The Corollary And The Complement To Humans Ethics. Are There Not Here Unsounded Depths For The Thinker? Is One To Think Oneself Mad Because One Has The Sentiment Of Universal Pity In One's Heart?
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Men Hate Those To Whom They Have To Lie.
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Try As You Will, You Cannot Annihilate That Eternal Relic Of The Human Heart, Love.
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Heart
Trying
The Guilty One Is Not He Who Commits The Sin, But He Who Causes The Darkness.
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Guilt
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A Breath Of Paris Preserves The Soul.
Paris
Soul
Preserves
Puns Are The Droppings Of Soaring Wits.
Dropping
Wit
Pun
Have No Fear Of Robbers Or Murderers. They Are External Dangers, Petty Dangers. We Should Fear Ourselves. Prejudices Are The Real Robbers; Vices The Real Murderers. The Great Dangers Are Within Us. Why Worry About What Threatens Our Heads Or Our Purses? Let Us Think Instead Of What Threatens Our Souls.
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Thinking
Worry
Love Has No Middle Term; Either It Destroys, Or It Saves. All Human Destiny Is This Dilemma. This Dilemma, Destruction Or Salvation, No Fate Proposes More Inexorably Than Love. Love Is Life, If It Is Not Death. Cradle; Coffin, Too. The Same Sentiment Says Yes And No In The Human Heart. Of All The Things God Has Made, The Human Heart Is The One That Sheds Most Light, And Alas! Most Night.
Heart
Fate
Night
To Be Wicked Does Not Insure Prosperity - For The Inn Did Not Succeed Well.
Wisdom
Wicked
Succeed
Nothing Makes A Man So Adventurous As An Empty Pocket.
Wisdom
Men
Pockets
Stupidity Talks, Vanity Acts.
Vanity
Stupidity
...it All Seemed To Him To Have Disappeared As If Behind A Curtain At A Theater. There Are Such Curtains That Drop In Life. God Is Moving On To The Next Act.
Moving
Next
Theater
Nothing Can Be Sadder Or More Profound Than To See A Thousand Things For The First And Last Time. To Journey Is To Be Born And Die Each Minute...all The Elements Of Life Are In Constant Flight From Us, With Darkness And Clarity Intermingled, The Vision And The Eclipse; We Look And Hasten, Reaching Out Our Hands To Clutch; Every Happening Is A Bend In The Road...and Suddenly We Have Grown Old. We Have A Sense Of Shock And Gathering Darkness; Ahead Is A Black Doorway; The Life That Bore Us Is A Flagging Horse, And A Veiled Stranger Is Waiting In The Shadows To Unharness Us.
Horse
Journey
Hands
Let Us Study Things That Are No More. It Is Necessary To Understand Them, If Only To Avoid Them.
Les Mis
Study
Les Miserable
The Earlier Works Of A Man Of Genius Are Always Preferred To The Newer Ones, In Order To Prove That He Is Going Down Instead Of Up.
Art
Men
Order
The Women Laughed And Wept; The Crowd Stamped Their Feet Enthusiastically, For At That Moment Quasimodo Was Really Beautiful. He Was Handsome — This Orphan, This Foundling, This Outcast.
Beautiful
Feet
Crowds
To Rescue From Oblivion Even A Fragment Of A Language Which Men Have Used And Which Is In Danger Of Being Lost -that Is To Say, One Of The Elements, Whether Good Or Bad, Which Have Shaped And Complicated Civilization -is To Extend The Scope Of Social Observation And To Serve Civilization.
Men
Civilization
Language
To Divinise Is Human, To Humanise Is Divine.
Divine
Humans
Change Your Opinions, Keep To Your Principles; Change Your Leaves, Keep Intact Your Roots.
Inspirational
Life
Change
If She Gives Me All Her Time It Is Because I Have All Her Heart.
Heart
Giving
Give Me
In Every Cradle Decked With Rosy Wreath Lurk Germs Of Death.
Death
Wreaths
Germs
Pain Is As Diverse As Man. One Suffers As One Can.
Wisdom
Pain
Men
Man's Greatest Actions Are Performed In Minor Struggles. Life, Misfortune, Isolation, Abandonment And Poverty Are Battlefields Which Have Their Heroes - Obscure Heroes Who Are At Times Greater Than Illustrious Heroes.
Struggle
Hero
Men
And Then, Strange To Say, The First Symptom Of True Love In A Young Man Is Timidity; In A Girl, It Is Boldness.
Love
Girl
Men
I Didn't Believe It Could Be So Monstrous. It's Wrong To Be So Absorbed In Divine Law As Not To Perceive Human Law. Death Belongs To God Alone. By What Right Do Men Tough That Unknown Thing?
Believe
Men
Law
We Do Not Comprehend Everything, But We Insult Nothing.
Wisdom
Insult
Les Miserable
The Last Resort Of Kings, The Cannonball. The Last Resort Of The People, The Paving Stone.
Kings
People
Paving The Way
In 1815, M. Charles-francois-bienvenu Myriel Was Bishop Of D—— He Was An Old Man Of About Seventy-five Years Of Age; He Had Occupied The See Of D—— Since 1806.
Men
Years
Age
If You Wish To Understand What Revolution Is, Call It Progress; And If You Wish To Understand What Progress Is, Call It Tomorrow.
Wish
Progress
Revolution
Wonderful Nature Has A Double Meaning, Which Dazzles Great Minds And Blinds Uncultivated Souls. When Man Is Ignorant, When The Desert Is Filled With Visions, The Darkness Of Solitude Is Added To The Darkness Of Intelligence; Hence, In Man, The Possibilities Of Perdition
Men
Soul
Darkness
To Destroy Abuses Is Not Enough; Habits Must Also Be Changed. The Windmill Has Gone, But The Wind Is Still There." ~old Man G--- To Monseigneur Bienvenu Myriel
Men
Wind
Abuse
There Are No Weeds, And No Worthless Men. There Are Only Bad Farmers.
Weed
Men
Farmers
Despots Play Their Part In The Works Of Thinkers. Fettered Words Are Terrible Words. The Writer Doubles And Trebles The Power Of His Writing When A Ruler Imposes Silence On The People. Something Emerges From That Enforced Silence, A Mysterious Fullness Which Filters Through And Becomes Steely In The Thought.
Writing
Play
Tyrants
A Wretched Woman Is More Unfortunate Than A Wretched Man.
Women
Men
Unfortunate
A Faith Is A Necessity To A Man. Woe To Him Who Believes In Nothing.
Faith
Wisdom
Believe
There Are Fathers Who Do Not Love Their Children; There Is No Grandfather Who Does Not Adore His Grandson.
Love
Children
Father
Be Happy Without Picking Flaws.
Flaws
Popularity? It's Glory's Small Change.
Small Changes
Recognition
Popularity
So Your Desire Is To Do Nothing? Well, You Shall Not Have A Week, A Day, An Hour, Free From Oppression. You Shall Not Be Able To Lift Anything Without Agony. Every Passing Minute Will Make Your Muscles Crack. What Is Feather To Others Will Be A Rock To You. The Simplest Things Will Become Difficult. Life Will Become Monstrous About You. To Come, To Go, To Breathe, Will Be So Many Terrible Tasks For You. Your Lungs Will Feel Like A Hundred-pound Weight.
Rocks
Agony
Desire
At The Shrine Of Friendship Never Say Die, Let The Wine Of Friendship Never Run Dry
Friendship
Running
Wine
The Great Acts Of Love Are Done By Those Who Are Habitually Performing Small Acts Of Kindness.
Inspirational
Kindness
Small Acts
There Shall Be No Slavery Of The Mind.
Mind
Atheism
Slavery
Smallness In A Great Man Seems Smaller By Its Disproportion With All The Rest.
Men
Great Men
Seems
To Rove About, Musing, That Is To Say Loitering, Is, For A Philosopher, A Good Way Of Spending Time.
Way
Leisure
Philosopher
To Be A Saint Is The Exception; To Be A Just Person Is The Rule. Err, Stumble, Commit Sin, But Be One Of The Just.
Saint
Sin
Commit
Genuflection Before The Idol Or The Dollar Destroys The Muscles Which Walk And The Will That Moves.
Moving
Idols
Dollars
Melancholy Is The Pleasure Of Being Sad.
Sad
Being Sad
Melancholy
A Day Will Come When Markets, Open To Trade, And Minds, Open To Ideas, Will Become The Sole Battlefield.
Ideas
Mind
Sole
That Is The Explanation Of War, An Outrage By Humanity Upon Humanity In Despite Of Humanity.
War
Humanity
Outrage
The Most Beautiful Of Altars, He Said, Is The Soul Of An Unhappy Creature Consoled And Thankfing God.
Beautiful
Soul
Unhappy
Human Society, The World, And The Whole Of Mankind Is To Be Found In The Alphabet.
World
Alphabet
Language
[t]he Small Is Great, The Great Is Small; All Is In Equilibrium In Necessity.
Science
Equilibrium
To Think Of Shadows Is A Serious Thing.
Thinking
Shadow
Serious Things
A Thousand Men Enslaved Fear One Beast Free.
Fear
Men
Beast
There Is No Vacuum In The Human Heart. Certain Demolitions Take Place, And It Is Well That They Do, But On Condition That They Are Followed By Reconstructions.
Heart
Vacuums
Demolition
A Benevolent Malefactor, Merciful, Gentle, Helpful, Clement, A Convict, Returning Good For Evil, Giving Back Pardon For Hatred, Preferring Pity To Vengeance, Preferring To Ruin Himself Rather Than To Ruin His Enemy, Saving Him Who Had Smitten Him, Kneeling On The Heights Of Virtue, More Nearly Akin To An Angel Than To A Man. Javert Was Constrained To Admit To Himself That This Monster Existed. Things Could Not Go On In This Manner.
Angel
Men
Evil
He Loved Books; Books Are Cold But Safe Friends.
Book
Safe
Cold
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.
Stars
Men
Ducks
Heaven, On Occasion, Half Opens Its Arms To Us; And That Is The Great Moment.
Opportunity
Heaven
Half
Reality In Strong Doses Frightens.
Strong
Reality
Dose
God Secludes Himself; But The Thinker Listens At The Door.
God
Thoughtful
Thinking
Profound Hearts, Wise Minds, Take Life As God Makes It; It Is A Long Trial, And Unintelligible Preparation For The Unknown Destiny.
Wise
Heart
Destiny
Diamonds Are To Be Found Only In The Darkness Of The Earth, And Truth In The Darkness Of The Mind.
Darkness
Mind
Earth
I Was Always A Lover Of Soft-winged Things.
Lovers
Those Who Always Pray Are Necessary To Those Who Never Pray.
Prayer
Praying
Nothing Is So Stifling As Symmetry. Symmetry Is Boredom, The Quintessence Of Mourning. Despair Yawns. There Is Something More Terrible Than A Hell Of Suffering - A Hell Of Boredom.
Wisdom
Blessing
Boredom
Dry Happiness Is Like Dry Bread. We Eat, But We Do Not Dine. I Wish For The Superfluous, For The Useless, For The Extravagant, For The Too Much, For That Which Is Not Good For Anything.
Wish
Extravagance
Useless
To Love Is The Half Of To Believe.
Believe
Love Is
Half
To Crush Out Fanaticism And Revere The Infinite, Such Is The Law. Let Us Not Confine Ourselves To Falling Prostrate Beneath The Tree Of Creation And Contemplating Its Vast Ramifications Full Of Stars. We Have A Duty To Perform, To Cultivate The Human Soul, To Defend Mystery Against Miracle, To Adore The Incomprehensible And To Reject The Absurd; To Admit Nothing That Is Inexplicable Excepting What Is Necessary, To Purify Faith And Obliterate Superstition From The Face Of Religion, To Remove The Vermin From The Garden Of God.
Crush
Stars
Fall
When Dictatorship Is A Fact, Revolution Becomes A Right.
Wisdom
Political
Politics
The Man Who Fights Against His Own Country Is Never A Hero.
Country
Hero
Fighting
Slowly He Took Out The Clothes In Which, Ten Years Beforem Cosette Had Left Montfermeil; First The Little Dress, Then The Black Scarf, Then The Great Heavy Child's Shoes Cosette Could Still Almost Have Worn, So Small Was Her Foot, Then The Vest Of Very Thich Fustian, Then The Knitted Petticoat, The The Apron With Pockets, Then The Wool Stockings.... Then His Venerable White Head Fell On The Bed, This Old Stoical Heart Broke, His Face Was Swallowed Up, So To Speak, In Cosette's Clothes, And Anybody Who Had Passed Along The Staircase At That Moment Would Have Heard Irrepressible Sobbing.
Children
Heart
Years
When Grace Combines With Wrinkles, It Is Admirable. There Is An Indescribable Light Of Dawn About Intensely Happy Old Age. . . . The Young Person Is Handsome, But The Old, Superb.
Wrinkles
Light
Grace
Right Is Right Only When Entire.
A Stand Can Be Made Against Invasion By An Army; No Stand Can Be Made Against Invasion By An Idea.
Army
Ideas
Invasion
Genius Is A Promontory Jutting Out Into The Infinite.
Wisdom
Genius
Infinite
By Putting Forward The Hands Of The Clock You Shall Not Advance The Hour.
Hands
Hours
Clock
If Suffer We Must, Let's Suffer On The Heights.
Suffering
Height
Ifs
When We Are At The End Of Life, To Die Means To Go Away; When We Are At The Beginning, To Go Away Means To Die.
Wisdom
Mean
Going Away
It Is Not Enough To Be Happy, One Must Be Content.
Contentment
Enough
What Makes Night Within Us May Leave Stars.
Inspirational
Uplifting
Wisdom
Philosophy Should Be An Energy; It Should Find Its Aim And Its Effect In The Amelioration Of Mankind.
Philosophy
Energy
Should
Why Worry About What Threatens Our Heads Or Purses? Let Us Think Instead Of What Threatens Our Souls.
Thinking
Worry
Soul
Mothers Arms Are Made Of Tenderness, And Sweet Sleep Blesses The Child Who Lies Therein.
Mother
Sweet
Children
Women Play With Their Beauty As Children Do With Their Knives. They Wound Themselves With It.
Children
Knives
Play
Should We Continue To Look Upwards? Is The Light We Can See In The Sky One Of Those Which Will Presently Be Extinguished? The Ideal Is Terrifying To Behold... Brilliant But Threatened On All Sides By The Dark Forces That Surround It: Nevertheless, No More In Danger Than A Star In The Jaws Of The Clouds.
Stars
Dark
Clouds
The Beautiful Has But One Type, The Ugly Has A Thousand.
Beauty
Beautiful
Wisdom
Where No Plan Is Laid, Where The Disposal Of Time Is Surrendered Merely To The Chance Of Incident, Chaos Will Soon Reign.
Past
Reign
Chance
Labor Is Life; Thought Is Light.
Light
Labor
Thoughts On Life
There Are Souls Which, Crab-like, Crawl Continually Toward Darkness, Going Back In Life Rather Than Advancing In It, Using What Experience They Have To Increase Their Deformity, Growing Worse Without Ceasing, And Becoming Steeped More And More Thoroughly In An Intensifying Wickedness.
Soul
Darkness
Wickedness
Do You Know What Friendship Is... It Is To Be Brother And Sister; Two Souls Which Touch Without Mingling, Two Fingers On One Hand.
Brother
Hands
Two
The Most Ferocious Animals Are Disarmed By Caresses To Their Young.
Animal
Parent
Young
In Saying No To Progress, It Is Not The Future Which They Condemn, But Themselves. They Give Themselves A Melancholy Disease; They Inoculate Themselves With The Past. There Is But One Way Of Refusing Tomorrow, That Is To Die.
Past
Giving
Progress
Success Is A Very Hideous Thing. Its False Resemblance To Merit Deceives Men.
Men
Merit
Deceiving
Give To A Being The Useless, And Deprive Him Of The Needful, And You Have The Gamin.
Giving
Useless
Religion, Society, And Nature--these Are The Three Struggles Of Man.
Struggle
Men
Humanity
"animals Are Happy," Said The Queen. "they Run No Risk Of Going To Hell." "they Are There Already," Replied Josiana.
Running
Animal
Risk
To Learn To Read Is To Light A Fire.
Fire
Light
I Like The Laughter That Opens The Lips And The Heart, Shows At The Same Time The Pearls And The Soul.
Laughter
Heart
Soul
A Library Implies An Act Of Faith.
Library
Creation Lives, Grows, And Multiplies; Man Is But A Witness.
Men
Creation
Witness
There Are Moments When A Rope's End, A Pole, The Branch Of The Tree, Is Life Itself, And It Is A Frightful Thing To See A Living Being Lose His Hold Upon It, And Fall Like A Ripe Fruit.
Fall
Tree
Rope
Emotion Is Always New And The Word Has Always Served; Therein Lies The Difficulty Of Expressing Emotion.
Lying
Emotional
Feelings
Another Story Must Begin!
Stories
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