Who can be sure that Jean Valjean had not been on the verge of losing heart and giving up the struggle? In loving he recovered his strength. But the truth is that he was no less vulnerable than Cosette. He protected her and she sustained him. Thanks to him she could go forward into life, and thanks to her he could continue virtous. He was the child's support and she his mainstay. Sublime, unfathomable marvel of the balance of destiny!

I'd rather be hissed at for a good verse, than applauded for a bad one.

Brothers, he who dies here dies in the radiance of the future, and we are entering a tomb all flooded with the dawn.

A joyous little creature, so beautiful, It was as if a gate of Heaven opened as she came in.

It is those books which a man possesses but does not read which constitute the most suspicious evidence against him.

A language does not become fixed. The human intellect is always on the march, or, if you prefer, in movement, and languages with it.

The wise man does not grow old, but ripens.