To crush out fanaticism and revere the infinite, such is the law. Let us not confine ourselves to falling prostrate beneath the tree of creation and contemplating its vast ramifications full of stars. We have a duty to perform, to cultivate the human soul, to defend mystery against miracle, to adore the incomprehensible and to reject the absurd; to admit nothing that is inexplicable excepting what is necessary, to purify faith and obliterate superstition from the face of religion, to remove the vermin from the garden of God.

The women laughed and wept; the crowd stamped their feet enthusiastically, for at that moment Quasimodo was really beautiful. He was handsome — this orphan, this foundling, this outcast.

He had slipped, climbed, rolled, searched, walked, persevered, that is all. Such is the secret of all triumphs.

I'm religiously opposed to religion.

Sublime upon sublime scarcely presents a contrast, and we need a little rest from everything, even the beautiful.

The saints were his friends, and blessed him; the monsters were his friends, and guarded him.

A library implies an act of faith which generations, still in darkness hid, sign in their night in witness of the dawn.