The power of a glance has been so much abused in love stories that it does come to be disbelieved in.  Few people dare now to say that two beings have fallen in love because they have looked at each other.  Yet it is in this way that love begins and in this way only.  The rest is only the rest and it comes afterward.  Nothing is more real than these great shocks which two souls give each other in exchanging this spark.
- Victor Hugo
"Les Miserables"

Diamonds are found only in the dark places of the earth; truths are only found in the depths of thought.
- Victor Hugo
"Les Miserables"

Citizens, whatever may happen today, through our defeat as well as through our victory, we are going to effect a revolution!  Just as conflations light up the whole city, revolutions light up the whole human race.  And what revolution shall we effect? I have just said; the revolution of the True.
- Victor Hugo
"Les Miserables"

The malicious have a dark happiness.
- Victor Hugo