He was at his own request and through his own complicity driven out of all his happinesses one after the other; and he had this sorrow, that after having lost Cosette wholly in one day, he was afterwards obliged to lose her again in detail.

Nature has made a pebble and a female. The lapidary makes the diamond, and the lover makes the woman.

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.

She might have melted a heart of stone, but nothing can melt a heart of wood.

You preserve your shame but you kill your glory.

How did it happen that their lips came together? How does it happen that birds sing, that snow melts, that the rose unfolds, that the dawn whitens behind the stark shapes of trees on the quivering summit of the hill? A kiss, and all was said.

There are no trifles in the human story, no trifling leaves on the tree.