Les Miserables: Chp. 1-2
I have to admit, as much as I love the story of Les Mis, I didn't expect to enjoy the book this much. I expected Hugo to read like Dumas or Verne, wandering certainly, but lacking complex insight, full of... Well, there's a style - a "taste" - unique to that period which can make the story slow, difficult to digest, and shallow. It has been a pleasure to discover that Hugo doesn't have that "taste" to his writing. There's depth to it, and a great degree of insight. The best way I can describe it is to say that while most authors describe people, Hugo describes souls.
Below are some excerpts I found interesting, or particularly insightful. I have a lot of complex thoughts about most of them that are difficult to express, so I'll just leave them here to be mulled over.
On the Nature of Sin: "Man is made of flesh and that flesh is both a burden and a temptation to him. He drags it around with him and he yields to it. He should keep a close eye on it, put the lid on it, repress it, and only give into it at the last extremity. There may still be some sin in giving into it even then; but such sin is venial. It is a slip, but a slip to one's knees, which may well end in prayer...Sin is like gravity." (13)
---
The Names of God: "...but Solomon names you Mercy and of all your names, that is the most beautiful." (18)
---
"Be afraid of ourselves. Prejudices are the real thieves, vices are the murderers. The greatest dangers are within us...Let's think only of what threatens our souls." (25)
---
"...but we didn't quite manage to obliterate its ideas. To wipe out abuse is not enough; you have to change people's whole outlook. The mill is no longer standing, but the wind's still there, blowing away." (35)
---
"The first proof of charity in a priest, and especially in a bishop, is poverty." (41)
---
"But what pleases us in those on the way up, does not please us as much when they are on the way down. We don't like fighting unless there is danger; and, in any case, only those who have fought from the very beginning have the right to annihilate at the very end. A man who has not been a relentless opponent in fair weather, when the enemy is at his peak, should keep quite in foul, when the enemy collapses. Only the man who has denounced his enemy's success can legitimately proclaim the justice of his downfall." (42)
---
On the Nature of the Soul: "Can man, created good by God, be made wicked by man? Can the soul be entirely remade by destiny and become bad if that destiny is bad?...Isn't there in every human soul...an initial spark, a divine element, incorruptible in this world, immortal in the next, that good can bring out, prime, ignite, set on fire and cause to blaze splendidly, and that evil can never entirely extinguish?" (77)
---
Below are some excerpts I found interesting, or particularly insightful. I have a lot of complex thoughts about most of them that are difficult to express, so I'll just leave them here to be mulled over.
On the Nature of Sin: "Man is made of flesh and that flesh is both a burden and a temptation to him. He drags it around with him and he yields to it. He should keep a close eye on it, put the lid on it, repress it, and only give into it at the last extremity. There may still be some sin in giving into it even then; but such sin is venial. It is a slip, but a slip to one's knees, which may well end in prayer...Sin is like gravity." (13)
---
The Names of God: "...but Solomon names you Mercy and of all your names, that is the most beautiful." (18)
---
"Be afraid of ourselves. Prejudices are the real thieves, vices are the murderers. The greatest dangers are within us...Let's think only of what threatens our souls." (25)
---
"...but we didn't quite manage to obliterate its ideas. To wipe out abuse is not enough; you have to change people's whole outlook. The mill is no longer standing, but the wind's still there, blowing away." (35)
---
"The first proof of charity in a priest, and especially in a bishop, is poverty." (41)
---
"But what pleases us in those on the way up, does not please us as much when they are on the way down. We don't like fighting unless there is danger; and, in any case, only those who have fought from the very beginning have the right to annihilate at the very end. A man who has not been a relentless opponent in fair weather, when the enemy is at his peak, should keep quite in foul, when the enemy collapses. Only the man who has denounced his enemy's success can legitimately proclaim the justice of his downfall." (42)
---
On the Nature of the Soul: "Can man, created good by God, be made wicked by man? Can the soul be entirely remade by destiny and become bad if that destiny is bad?...Isn't there in every human soul...an initial spark, a divine element, incorruptible in this world, immortal in the next, that good can bring out, prime, ignite, set on fire and cause to blaze splendidly, and that evil can never entirely extinguish?" (77)
---