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Jean Valjean
Regularly referred to as Bishop of D--, Bienvenu, the novel begins as a story about the Bishop, who is the embodiment of goodness in the book—even as the narrator suggests that ultimate goodness is not the same as great intelligence or even theological knowledge. By creating a religious and specifically Christian figure as the epitome of goodness, Hugo both emphasizes his belief that God is the way to goodness, and offers an alternative to the conception of many religious figures as corrupt and power-hungry. The Bishop is the key to Valjean’s redemption—not necessarily in his own person but, according to the novel, as a conduit to God’s redemption.
Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel Quotes in Les Miserables
The Les Miserables quotes below are all either spoken by Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel or refer to Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel. 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:
).
Volume 1, Book 1
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“The guilty one is not the person who has committed the sin, but the person who has created the shadow.”
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“Let us never fear robbers nor murderers. Those are dangers from without, petty dangers. Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves.”
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Volume 2, Book 4
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Only, as he was five and fifty, and Cosette eight years of age, all that might have been love in the whole course of his life flowed together into a sort of ineffable light. It was the second white apparition which he had encountered. The Bishop had caused the dawn of virtue to rise on his horizon; Cosette caused the dawn of love to rise.
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Get the entire Les Miserables LitChart as a printable PDF.
Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel Quotes in Les Miserables
The Les Miserables quotes below are all either spoken by Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel or refer to Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel. 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:
).
Volume 1, Book 1
Quotes
“The guilty one is not the person who has committed the sin, but the person who has created the shadow.”
Related Characters:
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“Let us never fear robbers nor murderers. Those are dangers from without, petty dangers. Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves.”
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Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Volume 2, Book 4
Quotes
Only, as he was five and fifty, and Cosette eight years of age, all that might have been love in the whole course of his life flowed together into a sort of ineffable light. It was the second white apparition which he had encountered. The Bishop had caused the dawn of virtue to rise on his horizon; Cosette caused the dawn of love to rise.
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