The Man Who Laughs

The passers-by, who have their own way of appreciating clever people, used to say: He is an idiot.

To speak out aloud when alone is as it were to have a dialogue with the divinity which is within.

Just then Gwynplaine, stricken by a sudden emotion, felt the sobs rising in his throat, causing him, most unfortunately, to burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

Whoso enters into transfiguration, leaves behind him evanescence.

Pride is the heel in which all heroes are vulnerable.

the paradise of the rich is made out of the hell of the poor."

Those who are not satisfied are hard to please.

"To be ugly—what is it? It is to do wrong. Gwynplaine only does good. He is handsome."

The noble beast feels the bite, and expends his mighty anger against the atom. An encounter with a tiger would weary him less; see how the actors exchange their parts. The lion, humiliated, feels the sting of the insect; and the flea can say, "I have in my veins the blood of a lion."

It is a fine thing to be a flea on a lion.