Ninety-Three

“An intelligent hell would be better than a stupid paradise.””

— Victor Hugo

“What makes night within us may leave stars.””

— Victor Hugo

“Whatever causes night in our souls may leave stars. Cimourdain was full of virtues and truth, but they shine out of a dark background.””

— Victor Hugo

“Nature is pitiless; she never withdraws her flowers, her music, her fragrance and her sunlight, from before human cruelty or suffering. She overwhelms man by the contrast between divine beauty and social hideousness. She spares him nothing of her loveliness, neither wing or butterfly, nor song of bird; in the midst of murder, vengeance, barbarism, he must feel himself watched by holy things; he cannot escape the immense reproach of universal nature and the implacable serenity of the sky. The deformity of human laws is forced to exhibit itself naked amidst the dazzling rays of eternal beauty. Man breaks and destroys; man lays waste; man kills; but the summer remains summer; the lily remains the lily; and the star remains the star....As though it said to man, 'Behold my work. and yours.””

— Victor Hugo

“Whatever causes night in our souls may leave stars.””

— Victor Hugo

“Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery.””

— Victor Hugo

“History has its truth, and so has legend. Legendary truth is of another nature than historical truth. Legendary truth is invention whose result is reality. Furthermore, history and legend have the same goal; to depict eternal man beneath momentary man.””

— Victor Hugo

“In short, between men and women you want...""Equality.""Equality! You can't mean it. Man and woman are two different creatures.""I said equality. I didn't say identity.””

— Victor Hugo

“I was confided to your loyalty and accepted by your treason; you offer my death to those to whom you had promised my life. Do you know who it is you are destroying here? It is yourself.””

— Victor Hugo