Quotes about Morality
When a man does wrong, he should do all the wrong he can; it is madness to stop half-way in crime!
— Victor Hugo
A benevolent malefactor, merciful, gentle, helpful, clement, a convict, returning good for evil, giving back pardon for hatred, preferring pity to vengeance, preferring to ruin himself rather than to ruin his enemy, saving him who had smitten him, kneeling on the heights of virtue, more nearly akin to an angel than to a man. Javert was constrained to admit to himself that this monster existed. Things could not go on in this manner.
— Victor Hugo
The soul in the darkness sins, but the real sinner is he who caused the darkness.
— Victor Hugo
Because things are not agreeable, said Jean Valjean, that is no reason for being unjust towards God.
— Victor Hugo
Javert, though hideous, was not ignoble.
— Victor Hugo
The judge speaks in the name of justice,' he said. 'The priest speaks in the name of pity, which is only a higher form of justice.' (Bishop Myriel)
— Victor Hugo
In days gone by, I stole a loaf of bread in order to live; to-day, in order to live, I will not steal a name.
— Victor Hugo
The prosperity of right is that it is always beautiful and pure.
— Victor Hugo
Was there a voice that whispered in his ear that he had just passed the most solemn moment of his destiny, that there was no longer a middle course for him; that from now on, he would either be the best of men or he would be the worst of men; that he now had to rise higher, so to speak, than the bishop or fall even lower than the galley slave; that if he wanted to be good, he had to be an angel; that if he wanted to stay bad, he had to be a monster from hell?
— Victor Hugo
We may be indifferent to the death penalty and not declare ourselves either way so long as we have not seen a guillotine with our own eyes. But when we do, the shock is violent, and we are compelled to choose sides, for or against... Death belongs to God alone.
— Victor Hugo
A reflection from this heaven shone upon the bishop. But it was also a luminous transparency, for this heaven was within him: this heaven was his conscience.
— Victor Hugo
For our part, if we were forced to make a choice between the barbarians of civilization and the civilized men of barbarism, we should choose the barbarians.
— Victor Hugo