Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“The supreme happiness of life consists in the conviction that one is loved; loved for one’s own sake—let us say rather, loved in spite of one’s self;”
- Source
- Les Misérables
- Date
- 1862
- English wording
- Isabel F. Hapgood — Translator · from French
Meaning of “The supreme happiness of life consists in the…”
Hugo’s narrator presents the felt certainty of being loved—including despite one’s imperfections—as an especially deep form of happiness.
Where does it come from?
Les Misérables, Project Gutenberg #135, in the represented Isabel F. Hapgood public-domain English translation. The sentence occurs in the narrator’s reflection on love and blindness; its English phrasing is translation-specific and belongs to the novel’s moral-religious rhetoric.