it's official. my first read is completed from my 2013 reading list. yes, i realize it is march, but les miserables was a hefty read (and to be fair, i technically finished it in february). unabridged version. it took time, dedication, and perseverance. but worth the effort, friends, worth it. sifting through my highlights, i am somewhat surprised at how many little excerpts stood out to me. as i read them again, it seems just like yesterday that i first read them. while i invite you to read through these little excerpts, i know many of you have much more better things to do, and that's okay. these little reminders are more for me anyway. though it may not seem like it once you start scrolling, i have left out the lengthier excerpts. you'll just need to read the book for yourself! see more from part two, here.
{part one}
"whether true or false, what is said about men often has as much influence on their lives, and particularly on their destinies, as what they do."
"'sire,' replied m. myriel, 'you are looking at a good man, and i at a great one. may we both be the better for it.'"
"bringing jealousy into play, he had brought truth to light by means of anger, and justice had sprung from revenge."
"the beautiful is as useful as the useful."
"i am nothing. i call myself count nothing, the senator. did i exist before my birth? no. will i after my death? no. what am i? a little dust surrounding an organism. what do i have to do on this earth! i have the choice of pain or pleasure. where will pain lead me? to nothing. but i will have suffered. where will pleasure lead me? to nothing. but i will have enjoyed. my choice is made. i must eat or be eaten, and i choose to eat. it is better to be the tooth than the grass. that's my philosophy."
"the first proof of charity in a priest, and especially a bishop, is poverty."
"no power is without its worshipers, no fortune without its court. the seekers of the future revolve around the splendid present."
"he saw nothing of all this: people weighed down with troubles do not look back; they know only too well that misfortune stalks them."
"there are moments when nature seems your enemy."
"the bishop, who was sitting beside him, touched his hand gently and said, 'you didn't have to tell me who you are. this is not my house; it is christ's. it does not ask any guest his name but whether he has an affliction. you are suffering; you are hungry and thirsty; you are welcome. and don't thank me; don't tell me that i am taking you into my house. this is the home of no man, except the one who needs a refuge. i tell you, a traveler, you are more at home here than i; whatever is here is yours. why would i have to know your name? besides, before you told me, i knew it.'"
"'you have left a place of suffering. but listen, there will be more joy in heaven over the tears of a repentant sinner than over the white robes of a hundred just men. if you are leaving that sad place with hatred and anger against men, you deserve compassion; if you leave it with goodwill, gentleness, and peace, you are better than any of us.'"
"it is an old story. the poor little lives, these creatures of god, thereafter without support, guidance, or shelter, wandered aimlessly, who knows where? each took a differing haze that swallows up solitary destinies, that sullen gloom where so many ill-fated souls are lost in the somber advance of the human race. they left the region; the church of what had been their village forgot them; the stile of what had been their field forgot them; after a few years in prison, even jean valjean forgot them. where that heart had been wounded, there was a scar. that was all."
"through suffering upon suffering he gradually came to the conclusion that life is a war and that in that war he was the vanquished. he had no weapon but his hatred. he resolved to sharpen it in the chain gang and take it with him when he left."
"liberation is not deliverance. a convict may leave prison behind but not his sentence."
"'do not forget, ever, that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man...jean valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. it is your soul i am buying for you. i withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and i give it to god.'"
"anyone seeing the two of them go by would have pitied them. the woman had nothing in the world but this child, and this child had nothing in the world but this woman."
"five years old! it will be said that's hard to believe, but it's true; social suffering can begin at any age."
"the supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves-say rather, loved in spite of ourselves."
"one can no more keep the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. for the sailor, this is called the tide; in the case of the guilty, it is called remorse. god stirs up the soul as well as the ocean."
"though beginnings might go wrong he was not alarmed, he who believed himself master and possessor of the end; he knew how to wait, believing in himself beyond question, and he treated destiny as an equal. he seemed to say to fate; you wouldn't dare."
"this people, surpassed by none in might and glory, values itself as a nation, not as a people."
"there are moments when a rope's end, a pole, the branch of a tree, is life itself, and it is frightening to see a living being lose his hold on it and fall like ripe fruit."
"a torn conscience leads to an unraveled life."
"eponine and azelma did not notice cosette. to them she was like the dog. the three little girls did not have twenty-four years among them, and they already represented the whole of human society: on one side envy, on the other scorn."
"the doll is one of the most imperative needs, and at the same time one of the most charming instincts, of feminine childhood. to care for, clothe, adorne, dress, undress, dress over again, teach, scold a little, rock, cuddle, put to sleep, pretend that something is somebody--the whole future of the woman is there. even while dreaming and chattering, while making little wardrobes and baby clothes, while sewing little dresses, little shirts and jackets, the child becomes a little girl, the little girl becomes a big girl, the big girl becomes a woman. the first baby takes the place of the last doll. a little girl without a doll is almost as unfortunate and just as impossible as a woman without children."
"what a sublime, sweet thing is hope in a child who has never known anything but its opposite."
"it's hard to let go of a mystery once you catch hold of it."
"from dawn on, cosette laughed, chattered, and sang. children have their morning song, like birds."
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