Les Miserables

Les Miserables

by

Victor Hugo

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Les Miserables makes teaching easy.
The grandson of Gillenormand, who is brought up in his household. Marius is perhaps the character that changes the most throughout the novel, shifting from a youth who parrots his grandfather’s reactionary views to a revolutionary himself. According to the narrator, poverty actually strengthens Marius’s character, making him devoid of greed or pride. His relationship with Cosette is the main love story of the novel, though it has tragic dimensions in terms of how it prevents Marius from being as forgiving as he might have been to Valjean once he learns of the latter’s past.

Marius Quotes in Les Miserables

The Les Miserables quotes below are all either spoken by Marius or refer to Marius. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Love and Redemption Theme Icon
).
Volume 3, Book 8 Quotes

He had found him at last, and how? His father’s savior was a ruffian! That man, to whose service Marius was burning to devote himself, was a monster! The liberator of Colonel Pontmercy was on the point of committing a crime whose scope Marius did not, as yet, clearly comprehend, but which resembled an assassination! And against whom, great God! What a fatality! What a bitter mockery of fate!

Related Characters: Thenardier (Jondrette), Marius
Page Number: 683
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 4, Book 2 Quotes

Happy, even in the midst of anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and of unhappiness! He who has not viewed the things of this world and the heart of man under this double light has seen nothing and knows nothing of the true.

Related Characters: Marius
Related Symbols: Light and Darkness
Page Number: 744
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 5, Book 1 Quotes

He who despairs is in the wrong. Progress infallibly awakes, and, in short, we may say that it marches on, even when it is asleep, for it has increased in size. When we behold it erect once more, we find it taller. To be always peaceful does not depend on progress any more than it does on the stream; erect no barriers, cast in no boulders; obstacles make water froth and humanity boil. Hence arise troubles; but after these troubles, we recognize the fact that ground has been gained. Until order, which is nothing else than universal peace, has been established, until harmony and unity reign, progress will have its revolutions as its halting-places.

Related Characters: Marius
Page Number: 1057
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 5, Book 3 Quotes

As he emerged from the water, he came in contact with a stone and fell upon his knees. He reflected that this was but just, and he remained there for some time, with his soul absorbed in words addressed to God. He rose to his feet, shivering, chilled, foul-smelling, bowed beneath the dying man whom he was dragging after him, all dripping with slime, and his soul filled with a strange light.

Related Characters: Jean Valjean, Marius
Related Symbols: Light and Darkness
Page Number: 1108
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Les Miserables LitChart as a printable PDF.
Les Miserables PDF

Marius Quotes in Les Miserables

The Les Miserables quotes below are all either spoken by Marius or refer to Marius. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Love and Redemption Theme Icon
).
Volume 3, Book 8 Quotes

He had found him at last, and how? His father’s savior was a ruffian! That man, to whose service Marius was burning to devote himself, was a monster! The liberator of Colonel Pontmercy was on the point of committing a crime whose scope Marius did not, as yet, clearly comprehend, but which resembled an assassination! And against whom, great God! What a fatality! What a bitter mockery of fate!

Related Characters: Thenardier (Jondrette), Marius
Page Number: 683
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 4, Book 2 Quotes

Happy, even in the midst of anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and of unhappiness! He who has not viewed the things of this world and the heart of man under this double light has seen nothing and knows nothing of the true.

Related Characters: Marius
Related Symbols: Light and Darkness
Page Number: 744
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 5, Book 1 Quotes

He who despairs is in the wrong. Progress infallibly awakes, and, in short, we may say that it marches on, even when it is asleep, for it has increased in size. When we behold it erect once more, we find it taller. To be always peaceful does not depend on progress any more than it does on the stream; erect no barriers, cast in no boulders; obstacles make water froth and humanity boil. Hence arise troubles; but after these troubles, we recognize the fact that ground has been gained. Until order, which is nothing else than universal peace, has been established, until harmony and unity reign, progress will have its revolutions as its halting-places.

Related Characters: Marius
Page Number: 1057
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 5, Book 3 Quotes

As he emerged from the water, he came in contact with a stone and fell upon his knees. He reflected that this was but just, and he remained there for some time, with his soul absorbed in words addressed to God. He rose to his feet, shivering, chilled, foul-smelling, bowed beneath the dying man whom he was dragging after him, all dripping with slime, and his soul filled with a strange light.

Related Characters: Jean Valjean, Marius
Related Symbols: Light and Darkness
Page Number: 1108
Explanation and Analysis: