Quotes about Morality

Do not forget, do not ever forget, that you have promised me to use the money to make yourself an honest man.' Valjean, who did not recall having made any promise, was silent. The bishop had spoken the words slowly and deliberately. He concluded with a solemn emphasis: Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to what is evil but to what is good. I have bought your soul to save it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.

The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.

The holy law of Jesus Christ governs our civilisation, but it does not yet permeate it.

To be a saint is the exception; to be a just person is the rule. Err, stumble, commit sin, but be one of the just.

To commit the least possible sin is the law for man. To live without sin is the dream of an angel. Everything terrestrial is subject to sin. Sin is a gravitation.

When a man does wrong, he should do all the wrong he can; it is madness to stop half-way in crime!

A benevolent malefactor, merciful, gentle, helpful, clement, a convict, returning good for evil, giving back pardon for hatred, preferring pity to vengeance, preferring to ruin himself rather than to ruin his enemy, saving him who had smitten him, kneeling on the heights of virtue, more nearly akin to an angel than to a man. Javert was constrained to admit to himself that this monster existed. Things could not go on in this manner.

The soul in the darkness sins, but the real sinner is he who caused the darkness.

Because things are not agreeable, said Jean Valjean, that is no reason for being unjust towards God.

Javert, though hideous, was not ignoble.

The judge speaks in the name of justice,' he said. 'The priest speaks in the name of pity, which is only a higher form of justice.' (Bishop Myriel)

In days gone by, I stole a loaf of bread in order to live; to-day, in order to live, I will not steal a name.