Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Even from death, the innocent observer watches the guilty.
In plain terms
Death does not stop the dead from witnessing wrongs.
What can you take from it?
Guilt is seen even by those who have passed.

Where it applies

  • morality tales
  • literary analysis
  • grief processing

Putting it to work

  • writing themes
  • discussing ethics

Questions to consider

  • Who watches us after we are gone?
  • Can the dead judge the living?

Another view

The quote is poetic and may not reflect literal belief.

More from Victor Hugo

  1. Waterloo! Waterloo! Waterloo! Morne plaine!

    Permalink to quote #7
  2. Vous creez un frisson nouveau.

    Permalink to quote #9
  3. On resiste a l'invasion des armees; on ne resiste pas a l'invasion des idees.

    Permalink to quote #6

Related quotes

  1. Requiem: The crucified planet Earth, should it find a voice and a sense of irony, might now well say of our abuse of it, 'Forgive them, Father, They know not w…

    Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut quote #194
  2. Stand us against a wall and shoot us, well and good, you are victors. But why should I be brought before a Tribunal like a c-c-c-... I can't even get the word …

    Robert LeyRobert Ley quote #1
  3. This is the funeral pyre and Troy is dead That sparkled so the day I saw it first, And darkened slowly after. I am she Who loves all beauty - yet I wither it.

    Sara TeasdaleSara Teasdale quote #1