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

The three great problems of this century; the degradation of man in the proletariat, the subjection of women through hunger, the atrophy of the child by darkness.

Civilization survives on the constant discovery of amity and an equal supply of damnation.

Philosophy is the microscope of thought. Everything desires to flee from it, but nothing escapes it.

Idleness, pleasure, what abysses! To do nothing is a dreary course to take, be sure of it. To live idle upon the substance of society! To be useless, that is to say, noxious! This leads straight to the lowest depth of misery.

Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.

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