A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.

Gavroche had fallen only to rise again; he sat up, a long stream of blood rolled down his face, he raised both arms in air, looked in the direction whence the shot came, and began to sing.

Love is like a tree, it grows of its own accord, it puts down deep roots into our whole being.

What dangers you run, O noble souls! Often, you give your heart, but we take only your body. Your heart is left to you and you look at it in the shadows and shudder.

These two beings, who had loved each other so exclusively, and with so touching a love, and who had lived so long for each other, were now suffering beside one another and through one another; without speaking of it, without harsh feeling, and smiling all the while.

The straight line, a respectable optical illusion which ruins many a man.

The pupil dilates in darkness and in the end finds light, just as the soul dilates in misfortune and in the end finds God.