Quotes!

[CHRISTOPHE FEUILLY]

That didn't come from the cbox. Or IC.

Basically, I saw a Taras Shevchenko (Ukrainian poet/artist who was born a serf) quote that someone had put on Facebook, and it occurred to me that Feuilly would probably like Shevchenko (but would never have reason to be familiar with him).

So that made me think hey, why not make this thread. I've always liked when quotations illustrate well something about a character. So I guess feel free to post ones for your own, or for someone else's. From whatever source you happen to want.

"Gain knowledge, brothers! Think and read,
And to your neighbors' gifts pay heed,--
Yet do not thus neglect your own."
--Taras Shevchenko

[nathanielredenei]

This is of course for Nate

"You have to believe in yourself."
Sun Tzu


"If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles."
Sun Tzu

"He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious."
Sun Tzu


Seems to me like something Nate would think yet how he would undertsand or read it I have no idea but its the best ive got

[Deleted]

"For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment." - James 2:13

"If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother." - Epictetus

"That best part of a man's life - his little, unremembered acts of kindness and of love." - William Wordsworth

"No man ever made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." - Edmund Burke

"You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know." - William Wilberforce

"If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; if I can ease one life from aching, or cool one pain, or help one fainting robin into his nest again, then I shall not live in vain." - Emily Dickinson

"But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." - James 1:25-27

2 excerpts from William Blake's poem, "On Another's Sorrow":
"Can I see another’s woe,
And not be in sorrow too?
Can I see another’s grief,
And not seek for kind relief?

"Think not thou canst sigh a sigh,
And thy Maker is not by:
Think not thou canst weep a tear,
And thy Maker is not near."

"…the pain we feel, prompts us to relieve ourselves in relieving those who suffer…" - Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

"If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large." - William Wilberforce

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." - 1 John 4:7-8

"A great man is one who leaves others at a loss after he is gone." - Paul Valery

To sum up, Hugo's description of Valjean's life goals:
"That I may carry on what I have begun, that I may do good, that I may be one day a grand and encouraging example, that it may be said that there was finally some little happiness resulting from this suffering which I have undergone and this virtue to which I have returned!"

[followedmyheart]

About Valjean and Cosette:
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” - Lao Tzu

"I don't know a perfect person. I only know flawed people who are still worth loving." - John Green

"Leaving feels good and pure only when you leave something important, something that mattered to you. Pulling life out by the roots. But you can't do that until your life has grown roots."

"There are things we don't want to happen but have to accept, things we don't have to know, but have to learn and people we can't live without but have to let go." - Criminal Minds


Cosette and Marius:
“Love is of all passions the strongest, for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.” - Lao Tzu

"Unless it's mad, passionate, extraordinary love, It's a waste of your time. There are too many mediocre things in life. Love shouldn't be one of them." - Dream for an Insomniac

About Les Mis in general
"Life asked death why do people love me, but hate you?" Death responded "Because you are the beautiful lie and I am the painful truth."

“You don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes.” - Walter M. Schirra, Sr.

"There are only four questions of value in life. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made of? What is worth living for? What is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same. Only love." - Don Juan DeMarco

“The beauty or ugliness of a character lay not only in its achievements, but in its aims and impulses; its true history lay not among things done, but among things willed." - Thomas Hardy

"You’ve felt it, haven’t you? Those feelings that seem to get so big in your chest, like something is so beautiful it aches?" -Heather Anastasiu

[HELENE DE ROCHAMBEAU]

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.” Edgar Allan Poe.

I think this represents many characters on the site <3

[VICTOR D'ANTHÈS]

I used this poem some in working with the worse side of Victor's personality, so I suppose I should post it! It's Alexander Pushkin's "The Demon," which makes me feel like I should be giving it to Gwen for Lucien instead... but I think it's perhaps traits that can characterize both of them when being exactly what can make the aristocracy weak.

The original does rhyme, but I'm to lazy to make that true of the translation right now.

"In those days when all was new to me,
All the happenings of daily life,
Maiden's glance, and sound of leaves,
Nocturnal nightengale's song.
When high-minded feelings,
Freedom, glory, and love
And art's inspiration
Made my blood flow faster.
Hours of hope and pleasure,
A sudden longing for autumn,
Then some malicious spirit
Crept silently over me.
Sorrowful were our meetings,
His smile, his charming glance,
His biting words
Poured cold poison in my soul.
With unceasing slander
He mocked Providence;
He called beauty naught but a dream,
He despised Inspiration.
He believed neither in love nor freedom,
Looked upon all of life as a joke--
And for nothing in all of nature
Did he wish to give thanks."

[PAUL CHAUVELIN]

About Sylvie --

He told how murderers walked the earth
Beneath the curse of Cain --
With crimson clouds before their eyes,
And flames about their brain;
For blood had left upon their souls
Its everlasting stain!
-- from The Dream of Eugene Aram by Thomas Hood

By thy cold breast and serpent smile,
By thy unfathom'd gulfs of guile,
By that most seeming virtuous eye,
By thy shut soul's hypocrisy;
By the perfection of thine art
Which pass'd for human thine own heart;
By thy delight in others' pain,
And by thy brotherhood of Cain,
I call upon thee! and compel
Thyself to be thy proper Hell!
-- from Manfred by Lord Byron

[followedmyheart]

I love that quote Helene! I think it really represents Cosette as well

[CHRISTOPHE FEUILLY]

So it's not for one of my characters, but I know Beck knows of my love for Bulgakov, and I think it can work for Jehan given his supposed love of the stars. It can probably go for a number of the Amis, really, and perhaps others as well.

Plus I mean... it's a bit poetic (even if its author wrote prose and plays rather than poetry), and the cry of a generally peaceful man caught up in the bloodshed of revolution and civil war:

"Everything passes away--suffering, pain, blood, hunger, pestilence. The sword will pass away too, but the stars will remain when the shadows of our presence and our deeds have vanished from the earth. There is no man who does not know that. Why, then, will we not turn our eyes toward the stars? Why?"

--Mikhail Bulgakov, The White Guard

[LUCIEN DE LA TOUR D'AZYR]

Maybe something out of Jehan's quill, I just had to think of the barricade boys...

Irish Poems by an Unknown Author

Remembered Joy
Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free!
I follow the plan God laid for me.
I saw His face, I heard His call,
I took His hand and left it all...
I could not stay another day,
To love, to laugh, to work or play;
Tasks left undone must stay that way.
And if my parting has left a void,
Then fill it with remembered joy.
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss...
Ah yes, these things I, too, shall miss.
My life's been full, I've savoured much:
Good times, good friends, a loved-one's touch.
Perhaps my time seemed all too brief—
Don't shorten yours with undue grief.
Be not burdened with tears of sorrow,
Enjoy the sunshine of the morrow.

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep
Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there... I do not sleep.
I am the thousand winds that blow...
I am the diamond glints on snow...
I am the sunlight on ripened grain...
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you waken in the morning's hush,
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of gentle birds in circling flight...
I am the soft star that shines at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry—
I am not there... I did not die...

[PAUL CHAUVELIN]

Just in case anyone might be getting too happy ...

"I Wander in Darkness and Sorrow"

I wander in darkness and sorrow,
Unfriended, and cold, and alone,
As dismally gurgles beside me
The bleak river's desolate moan.
The rise of the volleying thunder
The mountain's lone echoes repeat:
The roar of the wind is around me,
The leaves of the year at my feet.

I wander in darkness and sorrow,
Uncheer'd by the moon's placid ray;
Not a friend that I lov'd but is dead,
Not a hope but has faded away!
Oh! when shall I rest in the tomb,
Wraot about with the chill winding sheet?
For the roar of the wind is around me,
The leaves of the year at my feet.

I heed not the blasts that sweep o'er me,
I blame not the tempests of night;
Ther are not the foes who have banish'd
The visions of youthful delight:
I hail the wild sound of their raving,
Their merciless presence I greet;
Though the roar of the wind be around me,
The leaves of the year at my feet.

In this waste of existence, for solace,
On whom shall my lone spiril call?
Shall I fly to the friends of my bosom?
My God! I have buried them all!
They are dead, they are gone, they are cold,
My embraces no longer they meet;
let the roar of the wind be around me,
The leaves of the year at y feet!

Those eyes that glanc'd love unto mine,
With motionless slumbers are prest;
Those hearts which once throbb'd but for me,
Are chill as the earth where they rest.
Then around on my wan wither'd form
Let the pitiless hurricanes beat;
Let the roar of the wind be around me,
The leaves of the year at my feet!

Like the voice of the owl in the hall,
Where the song and the banquet have ceas'd,
Where the green weeds have mantled the hearth,
Whence arose the proud flame of the feast;
So I cry to the storm, whose dark wing
Scatters on me the wild-driving sleet--
'Let the roar of the wind be around me,
The fall of the leaves at my feet!'


-- Lord Tennyson

[Deleted]

Combeferre is not sappy enough to recite this but if you asked him whom this poem described he might tell you Eponine. I was thinking about the part about 'raven tresses' and went "D'oh! This fits! Kinda." Or maybe I just love Byron. Anyway straight from Blaise's mind:


She Walks in Beauty
By Lord Byron

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

[MICHEL MONTPARNASSE]

Not sure that it's anyone in particular, so much as just that it made me think sort of... barricade aftermath, those who live and those who die...

Nikolai Karamzin's "Voice From Another World" (trans. Vladimir Nabokov)

Do not try to find out whither my way has sloped,
Into what sphere I have passed when leaving this world.
O friend, all earthly things have I accomplished
On earth I have loved and lived.

Have I found them [the dead]? Have hopes been realized?
Fearlessly believe; no deception awaits the heart;
All has been fulfilled; I am in the land where soul meets soul
And I know here how beautiful your world is.

Friend, great things on earth are not useless.
Be firm, for here you will not be betrayed;
O my dear one, here nothing shall remain unanswered
Nothing, nothing: neither a thought, nor a sigh, nor a glance.

Do not lose heart: the past is with you;
I am invisible, but our world is one
Let your fair soul remain true to me,
Accomplish alone what we both began.

[MICHEL MONTPARNASSE]

....Aaaand one more before I go write actual posts. Not sure it really needs all that much explanation, haha.

This was written in 1817 by Alexander Pushkin. The translator is once again Nabokov.

Liberty: An Ode

Begone, be hidden from my eyes,
Delicate Queen of Cythera!
Where are you, where are you, the terror
Of Kings, the proud chantress of Freedom?
Arrive; pluck off my garland; break
The lyre of mollitude! I wish
Freedom to sing unto the world
And smite iniquity on thrones.

Reveal to me the noble track
Of that exalted Gaul, to whom
You, 'midst awesome calamities,
Yourself courageous hymns inspired.
Nurslings of fickle Destiny,
You, tyrants of the universe,
Shudder! And you take heart and hearken,
Resuscitate, ye fallen slaves!

Alas! Where'er my gaze I cast
--Everywhere whips, everywhere irons;
The perilous disgrace of laws,
The helpless tears of servitude.
Unrighteous Power everywhere
In condensed fog of prejudices
Has been enthroned--the awesome Genius
Of slavery, and fame's fatal passion.

There only on the kingly head
Does not lie the distress of nations
Where firm with sacred liberty
Is the accord of mighty laws;
Where spread to all is their strong shield;
Where, grasped by trusty hands, above
The equal heads of citizens
Their sword without preferment glides,

And from that elevation strikes
Wrongdoing in a righteous sweep;
Where their arm is unbribable
By ravenous avarice or fear.
Rulers! To you the crown and throne
The Law gives and not Nature. Higher
Than the People you stand, but higher
Than you is the eternal Law.

And woe, woe to the races where
Imprudently it slumbers; where
Either the People or the Kings
To dominate the Law are able!
As witness, you I call, O martyr
Of glorious errors, who laid down
For ancestors a kingly head
In the tumult of recent tempests.

Louis ascends to death, in sight
Of mute posterity. His head,
Now crownless, he has sunk upon
The bloody block of Broken Faith.
The Law is silent; silent is
The People. The criminal blade
Now falls and lo! A villainous
Purple has clothed the shackled Gauls.

Autocratic Villain! You,
Your throne I view with detestation;
Your downfall, your descendants' death
I see with cruel jubilation.
The Peoples read upon your brow
The stamp of malediction. You
Are the world's horror, nature's shame,
Upon earth a reproach to God.

When down upon the gloomy Neva
The star Polaris scintillates
And peaceful slumber overwhelms
The head that is devoid of cares,
The pensive poet contemplates
The grimly sleeping in the mist
Forlorn memorial of a tyrant,
A palace to oblivion cast,

And hears the dreadful voice of Clio
Above yon gloom-pervaded walls
And vividly before his eyes
He sees Caligula's last hours.
He sees: beribanded, bestarred,
With Wine and Hate intoxicated,
They come, the furtive assassins,
Their faces brazen, hearts afraid.

Silent is the untrusty watchman,
The drawbridge silently is lowered,
The gate is opened in the dark
Of night by hired treachery's hand.
O shame! O horror of our days!
Like animals, the Janissaries
Burst in. The infamous blows fall,
And perished has the crowned villain!

And nowadays, keep learning, Kings!
Not punishment, not recompenses,
Not altars, and not prison vaults,
Provide you with secure defenses.
Be you the first to bow your heads
Beneath the Law's trustworthy shelter
And guard eternally the throne
Shall liberty and peace of Peoples.