Deep hearts, sage minds, take life as God has made it; it is a long trial, an incomprehensible preparation for an unknown destiny. This destiny, the true one, begins for a man with the first step inside the tomb. Then something appears to him, and he begins to distinguish the definitive. The definitive, meditate upon that word. The living perceive the infinite; the definitive permits itself to be seen only by the dead. In the meanwhile, love and suffer, hope and contemplate. Woe, alas! to him who shall have loved only bodies, forms, appearances! Death will deprive him of all. Try to love souls, you will find them again.

The shortest correspondence in history is said to have been between Hugo and his publiVictor Hugor Hurst and Blackett in 1862. His last novel Quatre-vingt-treize (Ninety-Three) publiVictor Hugod in 1874 dealt with a subject that Hugo had previously avoided: the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. Well over one thousand musical compositions have been inspired by Hugo's works from the 19th century until the present day.

Among many volumes of poetry Les Contemplations and La Légende des siècles stand particularly high in critical esteem. Victor Marie Hugo (French pronunciation: ​[viktɔʁ maʁi yɡo]; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet novelist and dramatist of the Romantic movement.