One drop of wine is enough to redden a whole glass of water.

Every idea must have a visible enfolding.

The human soul has still greater need of the ideal than of the real. It is by the real that we exist; it is by the ideal that we live.

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

Wonderful nature has a double meaning, which dazzles great minds and blinds uncultivated souls. When man is ignorant, when the desert is filled with visions, the darkness of solitude is added to the darkness of intelligence; hence, in man, the possibilities of perdition

There is a sacred horror about everything grand. It is easy to admire mediocrity and hills; but whatever is too lofty, a genius as well as a mountain, an assembly as well as a masterpiece, seen too near, is appalling.

No one can keep a secret better than a child.