3
" The driver, a black silhouette upon his box, whipped up his bony horses. Icy silence in the coach. Marius, motionless, his body braced in the corner of the carriage, his head dropping down upon his breast, his arms hanging, his legs rigid, appeared to await nothing now but a coffin; Jean Valjean seemed made of shadow, and Javert of stone. "
― Victor Hugo , Les Misérables
9
" Please yourself, you won't get in. I can't be the daughter of a dog seeing as I am the daughter of a wolf! There are six of you. What's that to me? You're men. Well, I'm a woman. You don't frighten me, that's for sure. I'm telling you, you won't get inside this house because I don't want you to. If you come any nearer I'll bark. I told you, I'm the 'cab'. I couldn't care less about you. Now be on your way, I've had enough of you! Go anywhere you like, but don't come here, I won't let you! You use your knives, I'll use my feet, it's all the same to me. So come on, then! "
― Victor Hugo , Les Misérables
16
" Poverty in youth, when it succeeds, has this magnificent property about it, that it turns the whole will toward effort, and the whole soul toward aspiration. Poverty instantly lays material life bare and renders it hideous; hence inexpressible bounds toward the ideal life. The wealthy young man has a hundred coarse and brilliant distractions, horse races, hunting, tobacco, gaming, good repasts, and all the rest of it; occupations for the baser side of the soul, at the expense of the loftier and more delicate sides. The poor young man wins his bread with difficulty; he eats; when he has eaten, he has nothing more but meditation. He goes to the spectacles which God furnishes gratis; he gazes at the sky, space, the stars, flowers, children, the humanity among which he is suffering, the creation admits which he beams. He gazes so much on humanity that he perceives its soul, he gazes upon creation to such an extent that he beholds God. He dreams, he feels himself great; he dreams on and feels himself tender. "
― Victor Hugo , Les Misérables
17
" What is more melancholy and profound than to see a thousands objects for the first and the last time? To travel is to be born and to die at every instant; perhaps, in the vaguest region of his mind, he did make comparisons between the shifting horizon and our human existence: all the things of life are perpetually feeling before us; the dark and bright intervals are intermingled; after a dazzling moment, an eclipse; we look, we hasten, we stretch out our hands to grasp what is passing; each event is a turn in the road, and all at once, we are old; we feel a shock; all is black; we distinguish an obscure door; the gloomy horse of life, which has been drawing us halts, and we see a veiled and unknown person unharnessing amid the shadows. "
― Victor Hugo , Les Misérables
19
" Essa existência claustral tão austera e melancólica, da qual acabamos de indicar alguns aspectos, não é a vida, porque não é a liberdade; não é o túmulo, porque não é a plenitude; é o estranho lugar de onde, como do alto de uma elevada montanha, se descobre, de um lado, o abismo em que estamos, do outro, o abismo em que estaremos; é uma fronteira estreita e enevoada que separa dois mundos, pelos dois, onde o raio enfraquecido da vida se mistura ao vago raio da morte; é a penumbra do túmulo. "
― Victor Hugo , Les Misérables
20
" Depois disso, não sei explicar, falam contra mim, me dizem: responda! O guarda, que é bom rapaz, me dá sinal com o cotovelo e diz baixinho: anda, responde. Mas eu não sei explicar, não tenho estudo, eu sou um homem pobre. É isso que fazem mal de não ver. Eu não roubei nada, só peguei o que estava no chão. Os senhores falam de Jean Valjean, Jean Mathieu! Eu não conheço esses homens. São do interior. Eu trabalhei com o senhor Baloup, bulevar de l’Hôpital. Eu me chamo Champmathieu. São muito espertos para me dizerem onde eu nasci. Eu mesmo não sei. Nem todo o mundo tem uma casa para vir ao mundo; seria muito cômodo. "
― Victor Hugo , Les Misérables