- Pontmercy: [in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo] You saved my life. Who are you?
- Thénardier: A Frenchman like you, monsieur, and if... if they catch me, I'll be shot.
- Pontmercy: Your name... your name and rank?
- Thénardier: Thénardier, sir. Sergeant.
- Pontmercy: Sergeant. I will remember you. And you remember me. Colonel Pontmercy. And if we both survive, you can call on me, I swear it.
- Félix: [watching Fantine and her friends] What do you say, then, gentlemen, will they do?
- Fameuil: Oh, I'd say they're ripe for the plucking.
- Blachevelle: One or two of them have been plucked before, I'd say. I like a girl who knows her way around a man.
- Félix: Then I stake my claim to the little brunette. She's ravashing.
- Fameuil: And what if she prefers one of us?
- Félix: To me? Impossible. No, no, I'm serious, gentlemen. Keep off the grass. She's mine.
- Fantine: Favorite said I shouldn't believe a single word you say.
- Félix: Of course. She wants to protect you. She's a good friend. But, you know, she has no need to worry, Fantine. You are the one with all the power in this situation. I'm utterly at your mercy.
- Fantine: I don't believe you.
- Félix: Let me prove it.
- Fantine: How are you going to prove it?
- Félix: You'll see.
- Bishop: What can we do for you, my son?
- Jean Valjean: I want something to eat and a bed for the night. I've got money. I can pay. A woman told me to knock on your door.
- Bishop: Then you've come to the right place. We have a bed for you, and we were just about to eat. Would you set another place at the table, Madame Magloire?
- Bishop: And, really, do we need even a wooden fork or spoon to dip a piece of bread into a bowl of milk?
- Madame Magloire: And to think what might have happened last night. Letting a wild beast like that into your house, we're lucky all he did was steal.
- Javert: Well, now, 24601. What was all that about today? You saving that guard's life. Why?
- [Valjean stays silent]
- Javert: If you were trying to get yourself an earlier release, you tried in vain. There's no hope of that. No hope at all. Sorry to disappoint you. Is that what you hoped to achieve by it?
- [Valjean still stays silent]
- Javert: Your strong-man act. What for? Make a fool of me? I'm right, aren't I? Let me tell you something that might surprise you. I could have been a criminal. I was born in prison. My parents were criminals. Men like us have only two choices: to prey upon society or to guard it. You chose the former, I chose the latter. And I can tell you, if I'd chosen to be a criminal, I would have been a hell of a lot better one than you've turned out to be. 19 years for a loaf of bread.
- [laughing]
- Javert: You've got twelve months left to serve. My guess, you'll be back in here before another year's gone by. And next time, it'll be for life. Whatever you think, you can never win.
- Jean Valjean: What about my savings? 171 francs.
- Javert: 109.
- Jean Valjean: 171. I kept a record in my head.
- Javert: A common error. The prisoner's calculated the sum from the number of days of imprisonment, not the number of working days. After deductions of days not worked, that is to say, Sundays, public holidays, and contributions for the annual Christmas dinner... the sum comes to 109 francs.
- [tossing a pouch to him]
- Javert: Spend it wisely.
- [giving him his ticket of leave]
- Javert: Here's your passport. You are required to show this to authorities in every town and village you pass through. You have your name back, monsieur 24601. I wonder if you can remember what it is.
- Jean Valjean: Jean Valjean.
- Javert: Are you sure about that?
- Jean Valjean: [loudly and firmly] JEAN VALJEAN!
- Madame Magloire: Have you heard what they're saying, Monseigneur? All the town's talking about it.
- Bishop: About what?
- Madame Magloire: The bad man that's roaming the town. They said he was a desperado with a terrible face.
- Bishop: I daresay a man can't help his face.
- Blachevelle: So, do you love me, Favorite?
- Favorite: Of course I do, Blachevelle, darling. I adore you.
- Blachevelle: So what would you do if I stopped loving you?
- Favorite: Oh, no, don't say that even as a joke. I'd run after you and scratch your eyes out.
- Favorite: You have to remember, they're not serious, these types. They're just amusing themselves. They come to Paris to learn how to be fine gentlemen, then they go home and they marry the girl their father chose for them.
- Fantine: Maybe it's not always like that.
- Favorite: Yes, it is. It's always like that. We're not like them. We're not ladies, we're grisettes. The ground we walk on, it's not solid ground, Fantine. We could fall through at any time. We could be down in the gutter, and no one would care. Plenty more where we come from.
- Fantine: But why should it always be like that?
- Favorite: Because it is.
- Old Lady: What are you doing there, my friend?
- Jean Valjean: Trying to sleep. What does it look like?
- Old Lady: Why don't you go to an inn?
- Jean Valjean: I did. They wouldn't take me. No one would take me. They shut their doors against me.
- Old Lady: [indicating another building] Have you tried knocking on that door?
- Jean Valjean: Which one?
- Old Lady: The house with the light in the window.
- Jean Valjean: No.
- Old Lady: Knock there.
- Favorite: What's that? Where... where are the gentlemen?
- Mabeuf: The gentlemen have left a letter for you.
- Favorite: Give it here.
- [taking it]
- Favorite: It says "This is the surprise."
- Zéphine: Well, go on, then, open it.
- Favorite: Good job one of us can read.
- [taking the letter out]
- Favorite: Right, here we go. "O, loving mistresses! At last it is time to remind you that we have parents. We have estates far away in the country, and we have duties to perform. Our fathers are calling their prodigal sons home, and killing fatted calves for us. By the time you read this, three galloping horses will be carrying us home to our mamas and papas. We are leaving. We have left. Lament us briefly and replace us rapidly. Signed, Felix, Blachevelle, and Fameuil. P.S., the meal is paid for."
- Bishop: You have suffered a great deal, my friend.
- Jean Valjean: Chained and shackled night and day, beaten for a word, beaten for a look, beaten for nothing. For 19 years. And now the yellow passport, so they've still got me. But this is, uh...
- [looking around]
- Jean Valjean: Different. This is like I'm dreaming. Is this a trick?
- Madame Magloire: Monsieur, the bishop treats everyone the same.
- Bishop: Yes, God tells us to love our fellow men.
- Jean Valjean: How can I love my fellow man when he treats me worse than a dog? It's easy for you. You can afford to be kind and gentle. You can afford to share your food and wine. Am I right?
- Bishop: Yes, of course you're right. Absolutely right, it is easy for me. But consider this: even if the world has done you a great injustice, does it really serve you to have a heart full of bitterness and hatred?
- Jean Valjean: How can I not have a heart full of bitterness and hatred? I'd like to see you after 19 years in the hulks. So don't preach to me about God and love!
- Bishop: Yeah, I beg your pardon, forgive me. I should have... considered your feelings. But you don't think it possible that kindness and love can change a man?
- Jean Valjean: No.
- Sergeant: This man was arrested ten miles away with a quantity of silverware in his knapsack, which I believe to be the property of the church.
- Bishop: Ah, thank you, sergeant, for bringing him back to me. Welcome back. I'm glad to see you. You forgot to take the candlesticks, didn't you?
- Jean Valjean: [confused] What?
- Bishop: Well, didn't he tell you that I said he could have the silverware?
- Sergeant: He refused to answer when questioned, Monseigneur.
- Bishop: Well, that was his right. But, uh... no harm done. Of course, you were doing your duty. So all is well. You can go now.
- Sergeant: Let him go free?
- Bishop: That's right. And thank you for your trouble. You may go now.
- Sergeant: If you say so, Monseigneur.
- Bishop: I do. Good day to you.
- Bishop: [giving his silver candlesticks to Valjean] Here you are. Put them in your knapsack.
- Madame Magloire: Monseigneur, what does this man want with our candlesticks?
- Bishop: I assume he's going to sell them for as much as he can get.
- [Valjean takes them]
- Bishop: Don't forget, don't ever forget, you promise to use the proceeds to become an honest man.
- Jean Valjean: I don't remember that.
- Bishop: Nevertheless, it's what you want, isn't it? To lead a good life?
- Jean Valjean: No. I don't know.
- Bishop: Jean Valjean, my brother, you do not belong to evil anymore, you belong to good. I have bought your soul with that silverware and these candlesticks.
- Jean Valjean: No.
- Bishop: Nothing to be done about it, I'm afraid. You belong to God now, Jean Valjean. Go in peace. God be with you.
- Madame Magloire: The silverware basket, it's gone.
- Bishop: No, no, it's, it's, uh, here. Look, over there.
- Madame Magloire: [finding it atop a shrub] What about the silverware?
- Bishop: Ah, now there, I, I can't help you, I'm afraid.
- Madame Magloire: [looking around] It's been stolen. Lord save us, that man who was here last night, he must have taken it. Ungrateful beast, after all your kindness.
- Bishop: When you think about it, was all that silver really ours in the first place?
- Madame Magloire: [frustrated] Yes, it was. Of course it was. More to the point, what are we to eat with now?
- Bishop: It's good?
- Jean Valjean: Yeah, it's good.
- Bishop: You were very hungry, I think. Let me pour you some more wine.
- Jean Valjean: You're a funny sort of priest. We had priests in prison. Not like you. You say I don't have to pay for any of this?
- Bishop: What is mine is yours, monsieur.
- Jean Valjean: I've got money. 109 francs. And five sous.
- Bishop: And how long did it take you to earn that?
- Jean Valjean: 19 years.
- Bishop: 19 years?
- Jean Valjean: 19 years of hard labor. Well, the five sous I earned today. It should have been seven, but... he cheated me. Yellow passport, people take advantage.
- Gillenormand: You dare to come here?
- Pontmercy: Good day, father-in-law.
- Gillenormand: Don't you bring that up with me, sir. I rue the day my poor daughter ever set eyes on you. And now the poor girl is dead, I thank God I need never see you again. And yet here you are.
- Pontmercy: I was hoping, sir, that we could make up our differences.
- Gillenormand: Were you? I marvel at your insolence. Make up our differences? You gave up all hope of that when you allied your fortunes with that Corsica brigand, Bonaparte.
- Pontmercy: I fought for France, sir. Napoleon was a great man. He still has my allegiance.
- Gillenormand: Better not say that too loud, young man. France has a king again, thank God. It's your lot they're stringing up from lampposts now. How do you like that? Now the boot's on the other foot. Huh? Bonapartist scum. Traitor to your class.
- Pontmercy: Sir, will you at least let me spend some time with my little boy?
- Gillenormand: Never! You will never set eyes on him. And I promise you this: if you break my prohibition, I'll disinherit him.
- Pontmercy: Sir, I beg you, for Marius' sake, if not for mine.
- Gillenormand: Never. He will be brought up to curse your very name, Pontmercy. Now leave my house. Go on, get out. Get out!
- Bishop: This is my bedroom here. And this is where you'll sleep. Tomorrow morning, you'll have a cup of warm milk, straight from our very own goat.
- Jean Valjean: You give me a bed right next to yours? Are you crazy? How do you know I'm not a murderer?
- Bishop: Well, that's the Good Lord's business, not mine. Or to put it another way, I'll take my chance with you, my friend.