What is called honors and dignities, and even honor and dignity, is generally fool's gold.

If he had had all Peru in his pocket, he would certainly have given it to this dancer; but Gringoire had not Peru in his pocket; and besides, America was not yet discovered. (p. 66)

Out Milky Way is the dwelling; the nebulae are the city.

Vengeance comes from the individual and punishment from God.

This book should be read as one would read the book of a dead man.

Can human nature ever be wholly and radically transformed? Can the man whom God made good be made wicked by man? Can the soul be reshaped in its entirety by destiny and made evil because destiny is evil? Can the heart become misshapen and afflicted with ugly, incurable deformities under disproportionate misfortune, like a spinal column bent beneath a too low roof?

It is man's consolation that the future is to be a sunrise instead of a sunset.