How we cite our quotes: (Part.Book.Chapter.Line)
Quote #1
Since there is always more misery in the depths than compassion in the heights, everything was given, so to speak, before it was received. (1.1.2.37)
Figures. You can have as much steamed broccoli as you want, but the ice cream is single-serve. Here, Hugo tells us that the world's supply of misery always seems to outweigh the supply of compassion—which means that compassionate people have to try extra hard to alleviate the suffering of others.
Quote #2
There are men who dig for gold; he dug for compassion. Poverty was his goldmine; and the universality of suffering a reason for the universality of charity. (1.1.14.8)
Bishop Myriel is just too good. No, seriously, he's really straining credulity here. Hugo's point is that Myriel's compassion is his wealth—and he keeps on digging it out of the ground of other people's poverty. Lucky him, he'll never run out.
Quote #3
Excess of suffering, as we have seen, had made him in some sort a visionary. (1.2.13.54)
Someone call up the pope (there's got to be a special line, right?) because this guy needs a non-stop ticket to sainthood. Bishop Myriel eventually becomes so familiar with human suffering that he reaches a state of enlightenment. The impulse to value his own happiness over that of others is totally gone. Is he even human at this point?