All Quotes

"Le bouge ainsi éclairé ressemblait plutôt à une forge qu’à une bouche de l’enfer, mais Jondrette, à cette lueur, avait plutôt l’air d’un démon que d’un forgeron."

"Ce vieillard, si ferme et si brave devant un tel danger, semblait être de ces natures qui sont courageuses comme elles sont bonnes, aisément et simplement. Le père d’une femme qu’on aime n’est jamais un étranger pour nous. Marius se sentit fier de cet inconnu."

"Je ne m’appelle pas Fabantou, je ne m’appelle pas Jondrette, je me nomme Thénardier! je suis l’aubergiste de Montfermeil ! entendez-vous bien? Thénardier! Maintenant me reconnaissez-vous?"

"Au moment où Jondrette avait dit: Je me nomme Thénardier, Marius avait tremblé de tous ses membres et s’était appuyé au mur comme s’il eût senti le froid d’une lame d’épée à travers son cœur."

"Pardon, monsieur, répondit M. Leblanc avec un accent de politesse qui avait en un pareil moment quelque chose d’étrange et de puissant, je vois que vous êtes un bandit."

"All theory is against the freedom of the will; all experience for it."

"As the Spanish proverb says, "He, who would bring home the wealth of the Indies, must carry the wealth of the Indies with him." So it is in travelling; a man must carry knowledge with him, if he would bring home knowledge."

"It is better to live rich, than to die rich."

"The insolence of wealth will creep out."

"All censure of a man's self is oblique praise. It is in order to shew how much he can spare."

"Wine makes a man more pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others."

"Were it not for imagination, Sir, a man would be as happy in the arms of a chambermaid as of a Duchess."

"I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works."

"Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy."

"A man who exposes himself when he is intoxicated, has not the art of getting drunk."

"Worth seeing? yes; but not worth going to see."

"If you are idle, be not solitary; if you are solitary, be not idle."

"A Frenchman must be always talking, whether he knows anything of the matter or not; an Englishman is content to say nothing, when he has nothing to say."

"Greek, sir, is like lace; every man gets as much of it as he can."

"No man was more foolish when he had not a pen in his hand, or more wise when he had."

"The applause of a single human being is of great consequence."

"Mrs. Montagu has dropt me. Now, Sir, there are people whom one should like very well to drop, but would not wish to be dropped by."

"Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world."

"My friend was of opinion that when a man of rank appeared in that character [as an author], he deserved to have his merit handsomely allowed."

"I have two very cogent reasons for not printing any list of subscribers; — one, that I have lost all the names, — the other, that I have spent all the money."

"Always, Sir, set a high value on spontaneous kindness. He whose inclination prompts him to cultivate your friendship of his own accord, will love you more than one whom you have been at pains to attach to you."

"To let friendship die away by negligence and silence, is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of this weary pilgrimage."

"Resolve not to be poor: whatever you have, spend less. Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness; it certainly destroys liberty, and it makes some virtues impracticable, and others extremely difficult."

"A man may be so much of every thing, that he is nothing of any thing."

"There is a wicked inclination in most people to suppose an old man decayed in his intellects. If a young or middle-aged man, when leaving a company, does not remember where he laid his hat, it is nothing; but if the same inattention is discovered in an old man, people will shrug up their shoulders, and say, "His memory is going.""

"A man might write such stuff for ever, if he would abandon his mind to it."

"Sir, there is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea."

"I never have sought the world; the world was not to seek me."

"It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them."

"As I know more of mankind, I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly."

"It might as well be said, "Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat.""

"It is as bad as bad can be: it is ill-fed, ill-killed, ill-kept, and ill-drest."

"Milton, Madam, was a genius that could cut a Colossus from a rock; but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones."

"Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice."

"Sir, I have found you an argument; but I am not obliged to find you an understanding."

"Sir, I look upon every day to be lost, in which I do not make a new acquaintance."

"I will be conquered; I will not capitulate."

"Philips, whose touch harmonious could remove The pangs of guilty power and hapless love! Rest here, distress'd by poverty no more; Here find that calm thou gav'st so oft before; Sleep undisturb'd within this peaceful shrine, Till angels wake thee with a note like thine!"

"A Poet, Naturalist, and Historian, Who left scarcely any style of writing untouched, And touched nothing that he did not adorn."

"How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure! Still to ourselves in every place consigned, Our own felicity we make or find. With secret course, which no loud storms annoy, Glides the smooth current of domestic joy."

"Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay."

"Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things."

"To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example."

"The trappings of a monarchy would set up an ordinary commonwealth."

"A fellow that makes no figure in company, and has a mind as narrow as the neck of a vinegar-cruet."