One sees qualities at a distance and defects at close range.

So long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Miserables cannot fail to be of use.

Blessed be Providence which has given to each his toy: the doll to the child, the child to the woman, the woman to the man, the man to the devil!

There is one spectacle grander than the sea, That is the sky.

Is there not in every human soul a primitive spark, a divine element, incorruptible in this world and immortal in the next, which can be developed by goodness, kindled, lit up, and made to radiate, and which evil can never entirely extinguish.

A smile is the same as sunshine; it banishes winter from the human countenance.

Ah," cried Gavroche, "what does this mean? It rains again! ...If this continues, I withdraw my subscription.