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See also: Les Misérables
Sourced
- I will be Chateaubriand or nothing.
- Written the age of 15 in one of his notebooks (c. 1817), as quoted in The Literary Movement in France During the Nineteenth Century (1897) by Georges Pellissier
- Ces deux moitiés de Dieu, le pape et l'empereur!
- These two halves of God, the Pope and the emperor.
- Hernani (1830), Act IV, Scene II http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Hernani#ACTE_4
- These two halves of God, the Pope and the emperor.
- Dieu s'est fait homme; soit. Le diable s'est fait femme!
- God became a man, granted. The devil became a woman.
- Ruy Blas (1838), Act II, Scene V http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Ruy_Blas#ACTE_2_SCENE_5
- God became a man, granted. The devil became a woman.
- Vous avez des ennemis? Mais c'est l'histoire de tout homme qui a fait une action grande ou crée une idée neuve. C'est la nuée qui bruit autour de tout ce qui brille. Il faut que la renommé ait des ennemis comme il faut que la lumière ait des moucherons. Ne vous en inquiétez pas, dédaignez! Ayez la sérénité dans votre esprit comme vous avez la limpidité dans votre vie.
- You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do no bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.
- Villemain (1845)
- You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do no bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.
- Vous tenez à l’exemple [de la peine de mort]. Pourquoi? Pour ce qu’il enseigne. Que voulez-vous enseigner avec votre exemple? Qu’il ne faut pas tuer. Et comment enseignez-vous qu’il ne faut pas tuer? En tuant.
- You insist on the example [of the death penalty]. Why? For what it teaches. What do you want to teach with your example? That thou shalt not kill. And how do you teach thou shalt not kill? By killing.
- "Plaidoyer contre la peine de mort" [An argument against the death penalty], Assemblée Constituante, Paris (1848-09-15)
- You insist on the example [of the death penalty]. Why? For what it teaches. What do you want to teach with your example? That thou shalt not kill. And how do you teach thou shalt not kill? By killing.
- Un jour viendra où il n'y aura plus d'autres champs de bataille que les marchés s'ouvrant au commerce et les esprits s'ouvrant aux idées. Un jour viendra où les boulets et les bombes seront remplacés par les votes, par le suffrage universel des peuples, par le vénérable arbitrage d'un grand sénat souverain qui sera à l'Europe ce que le parlement est à l'Angleterre, ce que la diète est à l'Allemagne, ce que l'assemblée législative est à la France! Un jour viendra où l'on montrera un canon dans les musées comme on y montre aujourd'hui un instrument de torture, en s'étonnant que cela ait pu être! Un jour viendra où l'on verra ces deux groupes immenses, les États-Unis d'Amérique, les États-Unis d'Europe, placés en face l'un de l'autre, se tendant la main par-dessus les mers, échangeant leurs produits, leur commerce, leur industrie, leurs arts, leurs génies, défrichant le globe, colonisant les déserts, améliorant la création sous le regard du créateur, et combinant ensemble, pour en tirer le bien-être de tous, ces deux forces infinies, la fraternité des hommes et la puissance de Dieu!
- A day will come when there will be no battlefields, but markets opening to commerce and minds opening to ideas. A day will come when the bullets and bombs are replaced by votes, by universal suffrage, by the venerable arbitration of a great supreme senate which will be to Europe what Parliament is to England, the Diet to Germany, and the Legislative Assembly to France.
A day will come when a cannon will be a museum-piece, as instruments of torture are today. And we will be amazed to think that these things once existed!
A day will come when we shall see those two immense groups, the United States of America and the United States of Europe, facing one another, stretching out their hands across the sea, exchanging their products, their arts, their works of genius, clearing up the globe, making deserts fruitful, ameliorating creation under the eyes of the Creator, and joining together, to reap the well-being of all, these two infinite forces, the fraternity of men and the power of God.
- Discours d'ouverture, congrès de la paix, [Opening address, Peace Congress], Paris (1849-08-21); published in Actes et paroles - Avant l'exil (1875)
- A day will come when there will be no battlefields, but markets opening to commerce and minds opening to ideas. A day will come when the bullets and bombs are replaced by votes, by universal suffrage, by the venerable arbitration of a great supreme senate which will be to Europe what Parliament is to England, the Diet to Germany, and the Legislative Assembly to France.
- Je n'entre qu'à moitié dans la guerre civile. Je veux bien y mourir, je ne veux pas y tuer.
- I only take a half share in the civil war; I am willing to die, I am not willing to kill.
- Histoire d'un crime (The History of a Crime) [written 1852, published 1877], Quatrième journée. La victoire, ch. II: Les Faits de la nuit. Quartier des Halles. Trans. T.H. Joyce and Arthur Locker http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Histoire_d%E2%80%99un_crime_-_IV#II._Les_Faits_de_la_nuit._Quartier_des_Halles
- I only take a half share in the civil war; I am willing to die, I am not willing to kill.
- On résiste à l'invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l'invasion des idées.
- Literal translations: 1) One resists the invasion of armies; one does not resist the invasion of ideas. 2) One withstands the invasion of armies; one does not withstand the invasion of ideas.
- Histoire d'un Crime (The History of a Crime) [written 1852, published 1877], Conclusion, ch. X. Trans. T.H. Joyce and Arthur Locker http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Histoire_d%E2%80%99un_crime_-_Conclusion#X.
- Alternative translations and paraphrased variants:
- One cannot resist an idea whose time has come.
- No one can resist an idea whose time has come.
- Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come.
- Armies cannot stop an idea whose time has come.
- No army can stop an idea whose time has come.
- Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come.
- There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come.
- Literal translations: 1) One resists the invasion of armies; one does not resist the invasion of ideas. 2) One withstands the invasion of armies; one does not withstand the invasion of ideas.
- Waterloo! Waterloo! Waterloo! Morne plaine!
- Waterloo! Waterloo! Waterloo! Dismal plain!
- L'Expiation, from Les Châtiments (1853), Book V
- Waterloo! Waterloo! Waterloo! Dismal plain!
- L'œil était dans la tombe et regardait Caïn.
- The eye was in the tomb and stared at Cain.
- La Conscience, from La Légende des siècles (1859), First Series, Part I
- The eye was in the tomb and stared at Cain.
- Vous créez un frisson nouveau.
- You have created a new thrill.
- Letter to Charles Baudelaire (1859-10-06)
- You have created a new thrill.
- Mettre tout en équilibre, c'est bien; mettre tout en harmonie, c'est mieux.
- To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better.
- Quatre-vingt-treize (Ninety-Three) (1874), Book VII, Chapter V http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Quatre-vingt-treize_-_III%2C_7#V_LE_CACHOT
- To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better.
- Jésus a pleuré, Voltaire a souri; c’est de cette larme divine et de ce sourire humain qu’est faite la douceur de la civilisation actuelle.
- Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. Of that divine tear and that human smile is composed the sweetness of the present civilization.
- Speech, "Le centenaire de Voltaire", on the 100th anniversary of the death of Voltaire, Théâtre de la Gaîté, Paris (1878-05-30); published in Actes et paroles - Depuis l'exil (1878)
- Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. Of that divine tear and that human smile is composed the sweetness of the present civilization.
- C'est ici le combat du jour ou de la nuit... Je vois de la lumière noire.
- This is the battle between day and night... I see black light.
- Last words (1885-05-22); quoted in Olympio, ou la vie de Victor Hugo by André Maurois (1954)
- This is the battle between day and night... I see black light.
- There shall be no slavery of the mind.
- Quoted by Courtlandt Palmer, president of the Nineteenth Century Club of New York, while introducing Robert G. Ingersoll as a speaker in a debate, "The Limitations of Toleration," at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York City (1888-05-08); from The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll (Dresden Publishing Company, 1902), vol. VII, p. 217
- Lever à six, coucher à dix,
Dîner à dix, souper à six,
Font vivre l'homme dix fois dix.- To rise at six, to sleep at ten,
To sup at six, to dine at ten,
Make a man live for ten times ten.- Inscription in Hugo's dining room, quoted in Gustave Larroumet, La maison de Victor Hugo: Impressions de Guernesey (1895), Chapter III
- To rise at six, to sleep at ten,
- Ce besoin de l’immatériel est le plus vivace de tous. Il faut du pain; mais avant le pain, il faut l’idéal.
- The need of the immaterial is the most deeply rooted of all needs. One must have bread; but before bread, one must have the ideal.
- "Les fleurs," (ca. 1860 - 1865), from Oeuvres complètes (1909); published in English as The Memoirs of Victor Hugo, trans. John W. Harding (1899), Chapter VI: Love in Prison, part II
- The need of the immaterial is the most deeply rooted of all needs. One must have bread; but before bread, one must have the ideal.
- Je représente un parti qui n'existe pas encore, le parti Révolution-Civilisation. Ce parti fera le vingtième siècle. Il en sortira d'abord les États-Unis d'Europe, puis les États-Unis du Monde.
- I represent a party which does not yet exist: the party of revolution, civilization. This party will make the twentieth century. There will issue from it first the United States of Europe, then the United States of the World.
- Océan - Tas de pierres (1942)
- I represent a party which does not yet exist: the party of revolution, civilization. This party will make the twentieth century. There will issue from it first the United States of Europe, then the United States of the World.
- ?
- Telegram to his publisher regarding the sales of Les Misérables. The publisher's reply was an encouraging "!"; as quoted in "No invention more clearly showed the benefits of brevity than the telegram" by Ben Macintyre in The Times (2006-03-04)
Letter To M. Daelli on Les Misérables (1862)
- Publisher of the Italian translation of Les Misérables (1862-10-18)
- Vous avez raison, monsieur, quand vous me dites que le livre les Misérables est écrit pour tous les peuples. Je ne sais s'il sera lu par tous, mais je l'ai écrit pour tous. Il s'adresse à l'Angleterre autant qu'à l'Espagne, à l'Italie autant qu'à la France, à l'Allemagne autant qu'à l'Irlande, aux républiques qui ont des esclaves aussi bien qu'aux empires qui ont des serfs. Les problèmes sociaux dépassent les frontières. Les plaies du genre humain, ces larges plaies qui couvrent le globe, ne s'arrêtent point aux lignes bleues ou rouges tracées sur la mappemonde. Partout où l'homme ignore et désespère, partout où la femme se vend pour du pain, partout où l'enfant souffre faute d'un livre qui l'enseigne et d'un foyer qui le réchauffe, le livre les Misérables frappe à la porte et dit: Ouvrez-moi, je viens pour vous.
- You are right, sir, when you tell me that Les Misérables is written for all nations. I do not know whether it will be read by all, but I wrote it for all. It is addressed to England as well as to Spain, to Italy as well as to France, to Germany as well as to Ireland, to Republics which have slaves as well as to Empires which have serfs. Social problems overstep frontiers. The sores of the human race, those great sores which cover the globe, do not halt at the red or blue lines traced upon the map. In every place where man is ignorant and despairing, in every place where woman is sold for bread, wherever the child suffers for lack of the book which should instruct him and of the hearth which should warm him, the book of Les Misérables knocks at the door and says: "Open to me, I come for you."
- À l'heure, si sombre encore, de la civilisation où nous sommes, le misérable s'appelle L'HOMME; il agonise sous tous les climats, et il gémit dans toutes les langues.
- At the hour of civilization through which we are now passing, and which is still so sombre, the miserable's name is Man; he is agonizing in all climes, and he is groaning in all languages.
- Du fond de l'ombre où nous sommes et où vous êtes, vous ne voyez pas beaucoup plus distinctement que nous les radieuses et lointaines portes de l'éden. Seulement les prêtres se trompent. Ces portes saintes ne sont pas derrière nous, mais devant nous.
- From the depths of the gloom wherein you dwell, you do not see much more distinctly than we the radiant and distant portals of Eden. Only, the priests are mistaken. These holy portals are before and not behind us.
- Ce livre, les Misérables, n'est pas moins que votre miroir que le nôtre. Certains hommes, certaines castes, se révoltent contre ce livre, je le comprends. Les miroirs, ces diseurs de vérité, sont haïs; cela ne les empêche pas d'être utiles.
Quant à moi, j'ai écrit pour tous, avec un profond amour pour mon pays, mais sans me préoccuper de la France plus que d'un autre peuple. A mesure que j'avance dans la vie je me simplifie, et je deviens de plus en plus patriote de l'humanité.
- This book, Les Misérables, is no less your mirror than ours. Certain men, certain castes, rise in revolt against this book, — I understand that. Mirrors, those revealers of the truth, are hated; that does not prevent them from being of use. As for myself, I have written for all, with a profound love for my own country, but without being engrossed by France more than by any other nation. In proportion as I advance in life, I grow more simple, and I become more and more patriotic for humanity.
- En somme, je fais ce que je peux, je souffre de la souffrance universelle, et je tâche de la soulager, je n'ai que les chétives forces d'un homme, et je crie à tous: aidez-moi.
- In short, I am doing what I can, I suffer with the same universal suffering, and I try to assuage it, I possess only the puny forces of a man, and I cry to all: "Help me!"
- Italiens ou français, la misère nous regarde tous. Depuis que l'histoire écrit et que la philosophie médite, la misère est le vêtement du genre humain; le moment serait enfin venu d'arracher cette guenille, et de remplacer, sur les membres nus de l'Homme-Peuple, la loque sinistre du passé par la grande robe pourpre de l'aurore.
- Whether we be Italians or Frenchmen, misery concerns us all. Ever since history has been written, ever since philosophy has meditated, misery has been the garment of the human race; the moment has at length arrived for tearing off that rag, and for replacing, upon the naked limbs of the Man-People, the sinister fragment of the past with the grand purple robe of the dawn.
William Shakespeare (1864)
- Dieu se manifeste à nous au premier degré à travers la vie de l’univers, et au deuxième degré à travers la pensée de l’homme. La deuxième manifestation n’est pas moins sacrée que la première. La première s’appelle la Nature, la deuxième s’appelle l’Art.
- God manifests himself to us in the first degree through the life of the universe, and in the second degree through the thought of man. The second manifestation is not less holy than the first. The first is named Nature, the second is named Art.
- Part I, Book II, Chapter I http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare_-_I_-_II.1
- God manifests himself to us in the first degree through the life of the universe, and in the second degree through the thought of man. The second manifestation is not less holy than the first. The first is named Nature, the second is named Art.
- Homère est un des génies qui résolvent ce beau problème de l’art, le plus beau de tous peut-être, la peinture vraie de l’humanité obtenue par le grandissement de l’homme, c’est-à-dire la génération du réel dans l’idéal.
- Homer is one of the men of genius who solve that fine problem of art — the finest of all, perhaps — truly to depict humanity by the enlargement of man: that is, to generate the real in the ideal.
- Part I, Book II, Chapter II, Section I http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare_-_I_-_II.2#.C2.A7_I
- Homer is one of the men of genius who solve that fine problem of art — the finest of all, perhaps — truly to depict humanity by the enlargement of man: that is, to generate the real in the ideal.
- Que l'avenir soit un orient au lieu d'être un couchant, c'est la consolation de l'homme.
- It is man's consolation that the future is to be a sunrise instead of a sunset.
- Part I, Book II, Chapter II, Section V http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare_-_I_-_II.2#.C2.A7_V
- It is man's consolation that the future is to be a sunrise instead of a sunset.
- Ce qu’on ne peut dire et ce qu’on ne peut taire, la musique l’exprime.
- Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
- Part I, Book II, Chapter IV http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare_-_I_-_II.4
- Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
Disputed
- He who is a legend in his own time is ruled by that legend. It may begin in absolute innocence, but, to cover up flaws and maintain the myth of Divine Power, one must employ desperate measures.
- Attributed to Hugo in Old Gods Almost Dead : The 40-year Odyssey of the Rolling Stones (2001), by Stephen Davis, p. 557; but sourced to Illuminations by Arthur Rimbaud in Jaco : The Extraordinary and Tragic Life of Jaco Pastorius (2006) by Bill Milkowski, p. iii
- I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses.
- Though research done for Wikiquote indicates that the attribution of this remark to Hugo seems extensive on the internet, no source has been identified. It seems to be a statement a modern satirist might make, derived from one made circa 1910 by Mrs Patrick Campbell regarding homosexuals: "Does it really matter what these affectionate people do — so long as they don’t do it in the streets and frighten the horses?"
- Et la marine va, papa, venir à Malte.
- And the navy, Papa, will come to Malta.
- Palindrome attributed to Hugo on the internet, but in no published sources yet found.
- And the navy, Papa, will come to Malta.