The aim of art is almost divine: to bring to life again if it is writing history, to create if it is writing poetry.

Religion, Society, and Nature--these are the three struggles of man.

I like the laughter that opens the lips and the heart, shows at the same time the pearls and the soul.

Everything speaks: the flowing airstream and the sailing halycon, the blade of grass, the flower, the bud, the element; did you imagine the universe to be otherwise?

Our acts make or mar us, we are the children of our own deeds.

One of the hardest labours of the just man is to expunge from his soul a malevolence which it is difficult to efface.

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!