95 Famous Quotes By Victor Hugo That Will Inspire You
Are you looking for the most famous quotes by Victor Hugo? Then you’re in the right place! Whether you want to be inspired or learn from his words, you’ll find this article helpful.
You may know Victor Hugo as one of the best French writers, thanks to his famous books, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831) and Les Misérables (1862), and his many poems, but what you make not have known is that he was (still is) one of the most influential French people of all time.
He was also a politician, becoming both a deputy and later senator. During his time, he influenced many people and his opposition to absolutism increased his “fame” and many even considered him a hero.
Thanks to all these, a number of streets in Paris were named after him, many songs and movies made based on his books, and his statue made, but above all, a Parisian museum known as Maison de Victor Hugo (House of Victor Hugo in English) was created to remember all his work.
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
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This house, located in Le Marais in Paris is where he lived for over 16 years of his life.
Today, it gives a glimpse of his life from the bedroom where he died, his drawings, paintings, decorative objects that he once used, and many others. He was also buried in the Paris Panthéon, an honor that just a few French people get.
As an influential figure, he said so many inspiring words during his lifetime, and that’s why as a Francophile, I decided to shed some more light on his words.
Whether you’re looking for words of encouragement about love, life, religion, or more, these Victor Hugo quotes will come to your rescue.
Most of these quotes by Victor Hugo are from his novels like The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Les Misérables, and others are phrases he said throughout his life.
Ready to be inspired? Read on to discover some of the most famous Victor Hugo quotes.
More Quotes and Captions to inspire you:
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Famous Quotes By Victor Hugo
I’ll be categorizing this post into quotes by Victor Hugo about life, inspirational quotes from Victor Hugo, love quotes by Victor Hugo, Victor Hugo quotations about God and religion, to general quotes of Victor Hugo.
Best Victor Hugo Quotes About Life
These Victor Hugo quotes below will make you evaluate how you see life in general!
1.“Common sense is in spite of, not the result of, education.”
2. “Laughter is sunshine, it chases winter from the human face.”
3. “When you get an idea into your head you find it in everything.”
4. “Nothing makes a man so adventurous as an empty pocket.”
5. “One drop of wine is enough to redden a whole glass of water.”“There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.”
6. “Mothers are often fondest of the child which has caused them the greatest pain.”
7. “He reached for his pocket, and found there, only reality.”
8. “A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labor and there is invisible labor.”
9. “Life is a theatre set in which there are but few practicable entrances.”
10. “It is a charming quality of the happiness we inspire in others that, far from being diminished like a reflection, it comes back to us enhanced.”
11. “Being good is easy, what is difficult is being just.”
12. “To die is nothing; but it is terrible not to live.”
13. “It is not enough to be happy, one must be content.”
14. “Change your opinions, keep to your principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots.”
15. “The paradise of the rich is made out of the hell of the poor.”
16. “To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better.”
17. “What is said about men often has as much influence upon their lives, and especially upon their destinies, as what they do.”
18. “Another story must begin!”
19. “Those who live are those who fight.”
20. “Nothing is more imminent than the impossible . . . what we must always foresee is the unforeseen.”
21. “The realities of life do not allow themselves to be forgotten.”
22. “Our acts make or mar us, we are the children of our own deeds.”
23. “Every day has its great grief or its small anxiety. … One cloud is dispelled, another forms. There is hardly one day in a hundred of real joy and bright sunshine.”
24. “Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves.”
25. “Short as life is, we make it still shorter by the careless waste of time.”
26. “Habit is the nursery of errors.”
Inspirational Quotes from Victor Hugo
If you’re looking for some inspiration, these famous quotes by Victor Hugo below will help you.
27. “No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.”
28. “Not being heard is no reason for silence.”
29. “Breathe, hope”
30. “Whatever causes night in our souls may leave stars.”
31. “Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.”
32. “Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.”
33. “Be happy without picking flaws.”
34. “There is nothing like a dream to create the future.”
35. “Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.”
36. “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
37. “Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace. God is awake.”
38. “The future has several names. For the weak, it is impossible; for the fainthearted, it is unknown; but for the valiant, it is ideal.”
Friendship And Love Quotes By Victor Hugo
If you’re looking for quotes from Victor Hugo on the topic of love and friendship, you’ll find them below.
39. “Love is like a tree: it grows by itself, roots itself deeply in our being and continues to flourish over a heart in ruin. The inexplicable fact is that the blinder it is, the more tenacious it is. It is never stronger than when it is completely unreasonable”
40. “What a grand thing, to be loved! What a grander thing still, to love!”
41. “Love each other dearly always. There is scarcely anything else in the world but that: to love one another.”
42. “To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.”
43. “If you know what my love for you is! It is fire; it is molten lead; it is a thousand daggers in my heart.”
44. “To love another person is to see the face of God.”
45. “I have been loving you a little more every minute since this morning.”
46. “Life is the flower for which love is the honey.”
47. “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved — loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.”
48. “To love is to act.”
49. “The supreme happiness in life is the assurance of being loved; of being loved for oneself, even in spite of oneself.”
50. “Nobody knows like a woman how to say things that are both sweet and profound. Sweetness and depth, this is all of woman; this is Heaven.”
51. “Woe, alas, to those who have loved only bodies, forms, appearances! Death will rob them of everything. Try to love souls, you will find them again.”
Victor Hugo Quotes About God And Religion
Maison de Victor Hugo – Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra/ Flickr
Here are the famous quotes by Victor Hugo on God and religion in general!
52. “Whom man kills God restores to life; whom the brothers pursue the Father redeems. Pray and believe and go onward into life.”
53. “Certain thoughts are prayers. There are moments when, whatever be the attitude of the body, the soul is on its knees.”
54. “Love is the foolishness of men, and the wisdom of God.”
55. “Love is the only future God offers.”
56. “God knows better than we do what we need.”
57. “We need those who pray constantly to compensate for those who do not pray at all.”
Quotes By Victor Hugo That Will Make You Think Deeper
Portrait of Victor Hugo – Nadar, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
These Victor Hugo famous quotes will definitely make you think deeper and probably give you a new perspective on how you see things!
58. “He who does not weep does not see.”
59. “If I speak, I am condemned. If I stay silent, I am damned!”
60. “As with stomachs, we should pity minds that do not eat.”
61. “He who opens a school door, closes a prison.”
62. “People do not lack strength, they lack will.”
63. “It is not easy to keep silent when silence is a lie.”
64. “If you wish to understand what Revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to understand what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.”
65. “Morality is truth in full bloom.”
66. “What matters deafness of the ear, when the mind hears? The one true deafness, the incurable deafness, is that of the mind.”
67. “To lie a little is not possible: he who lies, lies the whole lie.”
68. “Every blade has two edges; he who wounds with one wounds himself with the other.”
69. “To contemplate is to look at shadows.”
General Quotes Of Victor Hugo
Here are more Victor Hugo quotes that relate to life in general!
70. “Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.”
71. “There is something more terrible than a hell of suffering–a hell of boredom. ”
72. “Let us sacrifice one day to gain perhaps a whole life.”
73. “Dear God! how beauty varies in nature and art. In a woman the flesh must be like marble; in a statue the marble must be like flesh.”
74. “Man lives by affirmation even more than he does by bread.”
75. “Each man should frame life so that at some future hour fact and his dreaming meet.”
76. “The earth is a great piece of stupidity.”
77. “Taste is the common sense of genius.”
78. “A smile is the same as sunshine; it banishes winter from the human countenance.”
79. “People weighed down with troubles do not look back; they know only too well that misfortune stalks them.”
80. “When a man is out of sight, it is not too long before he is out of mind.”
81. “To err is human. To loaf is Parisian.” (This is also one of the best quotes about Paris.)
82. “If you are stone, be magnetic; if a plant, be sensitive; but if you are human be love.”
83. “When a woman is talking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes”
84. “To study in Paris is to be born in Paris!”
85. “I think, therefore I doubt.”
86. “To rise from error to truth is rare and beautiful.”
87. “He who every morning plans the transactions of that day and follows that plan carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.”
88. “I’m not totally useless. I can be used as a bad example.”
89. “Pain is as diverse as man. One suffers as one can.”
Victor Hugo Avenue – PersianDutchNetwork, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
90. “More powerful than the mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.”
91. “Of all the things that God has made, the human heart is the one which sheds the most light, alas! and the most darkness.”
92. “It is by suffering that human beings become angels.”
93. “The wise man does not grow old, but ripens.”
94. “Doing nothing is happiness for children and misery for old men.”
95. “Almost all our desires, when examined, contain something too shameful to reveal.”
Final Thoughts On The Famous Quotes Of Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo was undoubtedly a brilliant writer and politician whose ideas and thoughts continue to inspire us today.
His quotes are like gems that have the power to make you ponder and reflect on various aspects of life. Though this write-up only offers a glimpse of his profound wisdom, there is a Victor Hugo quote that can make you delve deeper into the mysteries of existence.
I’m curious to know which of his famous quotes have left a lasting impression on your mind. Share your thoughts in the comments below.
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