The supreme ordeal, let us say rather, the only ordeal, is the loss of the beloved being.

Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man.... Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!

Social prosperity means man happy, the citizen free, the nation great.

The onward march of the human race requires that the heights around it constantly blaze with noble lessons of courage. Deeds of daring dazzle history and form one of man's guiding lights.

As for the bishop, the sight of the guillotine was a great shock to him, from which he recovered only slowly.

...But listen, there will be more joy in heaven over the tears of a repentant sinner than over the white robes of a hundred just men.

God was bored by him.