1,711 Quotes by Victor Hugo

Was it possible that Napoleon should win the battle of Waterloo? We answer, No! Why? Because of Wellington? Because of Blucher? No! Because of God! For Bonaparte to conquer at Waterloo was not the law of the nineteenth century. It was time that this vast man should fall. He had been impeached before the Infinite! He had vexed God! Waterloo was not a battle. It was the change of front of the universe!

The hand which moves over the dial moves also among souls.

A language does not become fixed. The human intellect is always on the march, or, if you prefer, in movement, and languages with it.

We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution.

A bit of mould is a pleiad of flowers; a nebula is an ant-hill of stars.

The wind of revolutions is not tractable.

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

To rove about, musing, that is to say loitering, is, for a philosopher, a good way of spending time, especially in that kind of mock rurality, ugly but odd, and partaking of two natures, which surrounds certain large cities, particularly Paris.

Success is a very hideous thing. Its false resemblance to merit deceives men.