Words to Live by

Beautiful quotes- inspiring and, at times, life changing.

Victor Hugo has penned so many that I love and I feel compelled to add a few here.  For my own blog is a place I return to time and again to re-read the thoughts and experiences I've recorded.  My own and those I've added that inspire me.  This is a scrapbook of sorts, for myself and my loved ones.

"No one knows like a woman how to say things which are at once gentle and deep."

"Conscience is God present in man."

"Evil.  Mistrust those who rejoice at it even more than those who do it."

"There are thoughts which are prayers. There are moments when, whatever the posture of the body, the soul is on its knees."

"To rise from error to truth is rare and beautiful."

 "A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them."

"Forty is the old age of youth, fifty the youth of old age."

 "Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace."

"Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face."

"When a woman is talking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes."


"Adversity makes men, prosperity makes monsters."

"Initiative is doing the right thing without being told."

"When grace is joined with wrinkles, it is adorable.   There is an unspeakable dawn in happy old age."

"One is not idle because one is absorbed.  There is both visible and invisible labor.  To contemplate is to toil, to think is to do.  The crossed arms work, the clasped hands act.  The eyes upturned to Heaven are an act of creation."

"Do not let it be your aim to be something, but to be someone."

"There is in this world no function more important than that of being charming. The forest glade would be incomplete without the humming-bird. To shed joy around, to radiate happiness, to cast light upon dark days, to be the golden thread of our destiny, and the very spirit of grace and harmony, is not this to render a service? Does not beauty confer a benefit upon us, even by the simple fact of being beautiful? Here and there we meet with one who possesses that fairy-like power of enchanting all about her; sometimes she is ignorant herself of this magical influence, which is, however, for that reason, only the more perfect. Her presence lights up the home; her approach is like a cheerful warmth; she passes by, and we are content; she stays awhile, and we are happy. To behold her is to live: she is the Aurora with a human face. She has no need to do more than simply to be: she makes an Eden of the house; Paradise breathes from her; and she communicates this delight to all, without taking any greater trouble than that of existing beside them. Is it not a thing divine to have a smile which, none know how, has the power to lighten the weight of that enormous chain which all the living, in common, drag behind them? Deruchette possessed this smile; we may even say that this smile was Deruchette herself."