Victor Hugo

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

A creditor is worse than a slave-owner; for the master owns only your person, but a creditor owns your dignity, and can command it.

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved – loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

A faith is a necessity to a man. Woe to him who believes in nothing.

I don’t mind what Congress does, as long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses.

An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.

A jest often decides matters of importance more effectual and happily than seriousness.

Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in.

Fortune makes a fool of those she favors too much.

Oftentimes, it’s the way we react to change that is the thing that determines the overall experience.

The man of genius inspires us with a boundless confidence in our own powers.

Why do the words I want to say, struggle to come out of my mouth. Why does fear have such a grip over me. I shouldn’t have to battle to say all the complimentary things I so desperately want to share. It shouldn’t be this hard, that I have to force myself; it’s wrong that such loving words, should have to be spoken under such duress. I’m aware of how wrong it is, but withholding is all I have known, even though I desire so badly to share my thoughts and feelings with you, as freely as you do with me.

Though I can make my extravaganzas appear credible, I cannot make the truth appear so.

We must not inquire too curiously into motives… They are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light.

The walking of Man is falling forwards.

There be three things which make a nation great and prosperous: a fertile soil, busy workshops, easy conveyance for men and goods from place to place.

For what we call illusions are often, in truth, a wider vision of past and present realities – a willing movement of a man’s soul with the larger sweep of the world’s forces –a movement towards a more assured end than the chances of a single life.

The depth and strength of a human character are defined by its moral reserves. People reveal themselves completely only when they are thrown out of the customary conditions of their life, for only then do they have to fall back on their reserves.

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.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin That makes calamity of so long life;