This brother … felt obliged to give alms to the poor whom he met, but never gave them anything more than coppers or worn-out sous, finding thus the means of going to Hell by the road to Paradise.

[Ce frère… se croyait obligé de faire l’aumône aux pauvres qu’il rencontrait, mais il ne leur donnait jamais que des monnerons ou des sous démonétisés, trouvant ainsi moyen d’aller en enfer par le chemin du paradis.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Vol. 3 “Marius,” Book 2 “The Grand Bourgeois,” ch. 6 “In Which We See La Magnon and Her Two Little Ones” (1862) [tr. Wilbour]

 
Added on 24-Jan-11 | Last updated 24-Jan-11
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