[T]he small is great, the great is small; all is in equilibrium in necessity.

Lastly, this threefold poetry flows from three great sources - The Bible, Homer, Shakespeare.... The Bible before the Iliad, the Iliad before Shakespeare.

Dying is nothing. What's terrible is not to live.

. . .where there is no more hope, song remains.

Let us have compassion for those under chastisement. Alas, who are we ourselves? Who am I and who are you? Whence do we come and is it quite certain that we did nothing before we were born? This earth is not without some resemblance to a gaol. Who knows but that man is a victim of divine justice? Look closely at life. It is so constituted that one senses punishment everywhere.

God became man, granted. The devil became a woman.

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