Talk:Victor Hugo

From Wikiquote

"No army can stop an idea whose time has come."

This is cited lots of ways by different people; what's the original wording in French?

"On resiste a l'invasion des armees; on ne resiste pas a l'invasion des idees," "One resists the invasion of armies, but not the invasion of ideas." Histoire d'un Crime (History of a CrIme) (1877) This is one of the most splendid and most diversely translated of all of Hugo's statements… one could probably gather at least a dozen common variants of it in english.

I've heard of the following quote (in Eats Shoots and Leaves, in particular) but can't find a source on line.:

In a letter to his publisher regarding the sales of Les Miserables:

?

In response, indicating good sales:

!

Small note -- if true, the story is that these were telegrams, not letters. Which explains the brevity since the cost of the telegram was calculated by the number of characters.

[edit] like a kiss through a veil

"A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil" Attributed to Hugo on the 'net, but did he say or write it, and if so, what's the French?

[edit] A compliment is something like a kiss through a veil.

from Volume 1 - Book Heighth - Chapter 1 of Les Misérables (check there : http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/135).