Key Quotes

1. Let us never fear robbers nor murderers. Those are dangers from without, petty dangers. Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves. What matters it what threatens our head or our purse! Let us think only of that which threatens our soul.

(M. Myriel, the Bishop of Digne) (Volume 1, Book 1)

These words are spoken by M. Myriel, the Bishop of Digne, in Volume 1, Book 1. They highlight the Bishop’s spiritual character and his distaste for the rampant and superficial social prejudices that hinder the pursuit of justice and compassion. The Bishop suggests that the real danger to social progress is people’s reluctance and inability to examine themselves: their own greed, prejudice. Tellingly, the Bishop suggests that bigotry and lack of compassion are graver indiscretions than robbery and murder.

2. I did not think that I had the right to kill a man; but I felt it my duty to exterminate evil. I voted the end of the tyrant, that is to say, the end of prostitution for woman, the end of slavery for man, the end of night for the child. In voting for the Republic, I voted for that. I voted for fraternity, concord, the dawn. I have aided in the overthrow of prejudices and errors. The crumbling away of prejudices and errors causes light. We have caused the fall of the old world, and the old world, that vase of miseries, has become, through its upsetting upon the human race, an urn of joy.

(Unnamed member of the Convention of 1793) (Volume 1, Book 1)

This speech is delivered on his deathbed by an unnamed member of the 1793 Convention. The member utters these words to the Bishop when he pays him a visit. When the Bishop remarks about the extent of bloodshed in the French Revolution, the man defends his decision to support the Republic despite the violence engendered by the revolution. The man argues that though the Revolution may not have been peaceful, it had ensured the abolition of slavery, prostitution, child abuse, and social prejudices. However, the characters of Jean Valjean, Fantine, and Cosette show that nineteenth-century France is not free from slavery, prostitution, or child abuse. Indeed, orphanhood is rampant in the country, and the poor and marginalized are degraded by French society. In other words, these characters show that the French Revolution did not achieve its purported ends.

3. Marius was bewildered. He began to catch a glimpse in Jean Valjean of some indescribably lofty and melancholy figure. An unheard-of virtue, supreme and sweet, humble in its immensity, appeared to him. The convict was transfigured into Christ.

(Narrator) (Volume 5, Book 9)

This excerpt explains Marius’ gradual realization that it was Valjean who’d saved his life during the 1832 Rebellion. Marius had known Valjean only as M. Fauchelevent until Valjean revealed his real identity to him. Marius is taken aback by Valjean’s criminal past and also assumes that he had killed Javert. As a result, he tries to discourage Valjean from visiting Cosette and is shocked that Valjean had pretended to be her father. However, as he realizes that Valjean had not only saved him but also not killed Javert, Marius finds himself thinking of Valjean as a saintly figure.

Additional Quotes

1. [Valjean] strained his eyes in the distance and called out . . . “Petit Gervais! . . .” His cries died away into the mist, without even awaking an echo. . . . [H]is knees suddenly bent under him, as if an invisible power suddenly overwhelmed him with the weight of his bad conscience; he fell exhausted . . . and cried out, “I’m such a miserable man!”

(Jean Valjean and the narrator) (Volume 1, Book 2)

2. [T]he poor little despairing thing could not help crying: “Oh my God! Oh God!”

At that moment she suddenly felt that the weight of the bucket was gone. A hand, which seemed enormous to her, had just caught the handle, and was carrying it easily. . . .

. . . The child was not afraid.

(Narrator) (Volume 2, Book 3)

3. Here, I am going to write something to show you.”

. . . [S]he wrote on a sheet of blank paper . . . “The cops are here.”

(Eponine and the narrator) (Volume 3, Book 8)

4. To owe life to a malefactor . . . to be, in spite of himself, on a level with a fugitive from justice . . . to betray society in order to be true to his own conscience; that all these absurdities . . . should accumulate on himself—this is what prostrated him.

(Javert and the narrator) (Volume 5)

5. [Valjean] had fallen back, the light from the candlesticks fell across him; his white face looked up toward heaven, he let Cosette and Marius cover his hands with kisses; he was dead.

(Jean Valjean and the narrator) (Volume 5, Book 9)