We would be ashamed of our best behavior if the people knew the motives of our behaving so.

War can only be qualified by its object, and there is neither foreign war nor civil war, there is only just or unjust war.

A doctor’s door should never be closed, a priest's door should always be open.

My day's work will begin again the next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley.

A benevolent malefactor, merciful, gentle, helpful, clement, a convict, returning good for evil, giving back pardon for hatred, preferring pity to vengeance, preferring to ruin himself rather than to ruin his enemy, saving him who had smitten him, kneeling on the heights of virtue, more nearly akin to an angel than to a man. Javert was constrained to admit to himself that this monster existed. Things could not go on in this manner.

One can no more keep the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. For a sailor, this is called the tide; in the case of the guilty it is called remorse. God stirs up the soul as well as the ocean.

It is from books that wise men derive consolation in the troubles of life.