Victor Hugo Quotes

1802–1885 France

Victor Marie Hugo (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, novelist, and dramatist of the Romantic movement, widely esteemed as one of the greatest of French writers and poets.

France
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Also known as: Hugo, Hugo, Victor, Hugo, Victor Marie, Victor Marie Hugo

Random Victor Hugo quote

91 quotes

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 not bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.

Things Seen (1830)

Now it is all over. The French nation is dead. Conclusion, Part Second, I

Napoleon the Little (1852)

And the dream that our mind had sketched in haste
Shall others continue, but never complete.
For none upon earth can achieve his scheme;
The best as the worst are futile here:
We wake at the self-same point of the dream,—
All is here begun, and finished elsewhere.

With moral degradation goes political degradation. Conclusion, Part First, III

Napoleon the Little (1852)

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.

Letter To M. Daelli on Les Misérables (1862)

When you offer a translation to a nation, that nation will almost always look at the translation as an act of violence against itself. To translate a foreign writer is to add to your own national poetry; such a widening of the horizon does not please those who profit from it, at least not in the beginning.

There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

Misattributed

I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses.

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.

Disputed

And the navy, Papa, will come to Malta.

Disputed

He who opens a school, closes a prison

Disputed

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Victor Hugo (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.