Les Misérables

by Victor Hugo

That day was composed of dawn, from one end to the other. All nature seemed to be having a holiday, and to be laughing.

The realities of the soul are none the less realities because they are not visible and palpable.

What is more melancholy and more profound than to see a thousand objects for the first and the last time? To travel is to be born and to die at every instant;

There he heard a very faint and gentle sound like the breathing of a child. He followed this sound, and came to a sort of triangular recess built under the staircase, or rather formed by the staircase itself. This recess was nothing else than the space under the steps.

What a spectacle is the night! One hears dull sounds, without knowing whence they proceed; one beholds Jupiter, which is twelve hundred times larger than the earth, glowing like a firebrand, the azure is black, the stars shine; it is formidable.

He had endured everything in the way of destitution; he had done everything except contract debts. He did himself the justice to say that he had never owed any one a sou. A debt was, to him, the beginning of slavery.

he thanks God for having bestowed on him those two forms of riches which many a rich man lacks: work, which makes him free; and thought, which makes him dignified.

He never went out without a book under his arm, and he often returned with two.

It seemed to him that he was floating free in the azure heavens. At the same time, he was horribly vexed because there was dust on his boots.

Love has no middle course; it either ruins or it saves. All human destiny lies in this dilemma. This

"There are people who observe the rules of honor as one observes the stars, from a great distance."

Let us abridge the tale.

Haha! Hugo did NOT abridge this book. It is very long winded.

The pupil dilates in the dark, and the soul dilates in misfortune and ends by finding God there.

He advanced with anxiety, but with calmness, seeing nothing, knowing nothing, buried in chance, that is to say, engulfed in providence.