There have been in this century only one great man and one great thing: Napoleon and liberty. For want of the great man, let us have the great thing. Victor Hugo
There is a sacred horror about everything grand. It is easy to admire mediocrity and hills; but whatever is too lofty, a genius as well as a mountain, an assembly as well as a masterpiece, seen too near, is appalling. Victor Hugo
There is no such thing as a little country. The greatness of a people is no more determined by their numbers than the greatness of a man is by his height. Victor Hugo
There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul. Victor Hugo