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The poor man shuddered, overflowed with an angelic joy; he declared in his transport that this would last through life; he said to himself that he rea...more

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With the exercise of a little care, the nettle could be made useful; it is neglected and it becomes hurtful. It is exterminated. How many men resemble...more

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The soul of the just contemplates in sleep a mysterious heaven.

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So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of damnation pronounced by society, artificially creating hells amid the civilizati...more

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Hardly had the light been extinguished, when a peculiar trembling beganto affect the netting under which the three children lay.It consisted of a mult...more

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. . . for men felt therein the presence of that great human thing which is called law, and that great divine thing which is called justice.

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This is the shade of difference: the door of the physician should never be shut, the door of the priest should always be open.

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She let her head fall back upon Marius' knees and her eyelids closed. He thought that poor soul had gone. Eponine lay motionless; but just when Marius...more

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The poor young man must work for his bread; he eats; when he has eaten, he has nothing left but reverie. He enters God's theater free; he sees the sky...more

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If they had had a different neighbour, one less sel-absorbed and more concerned for others, a man of normal, charitable instincts, their desperate sta...more

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Ecclesiastes names thee Almighty, the Maccabees name thee Creator, the Epistle to the Ephesians names thee Liberty, Baruch names thee Immensity, the P...more

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When you shall have learned to know, and to love, you will still suffer. The day is born in tears. The luminous weep, if only over those in darkness.

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Because things are not agreeable," said Jean Valjean, "that is no reason for being unjust towards God.

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He was fine; he, that orphan that foundling that outcast; he felt himself august and strong; he looked full in the face that society from which he was...more

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The merciful precepts of Christ will at last suffuse the Code and it will glow with their radiance. Crime will be considered an illness with its own d...more