(?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)
Victor Hugo

“This light of history is pitiless; it has a strange and divine quality that, luminous as it is, and precisely because it is luminous, often casts a shadow just where we saw a radiance; out of the same man it makes two different phantoms, and the one attacks and punishes the other, the darkness of the despot struggles with the splendor of the captain. Hence a truer measure in the final judgment of the nations. Babylon violated diminishes Alexander; Rome enslaved diminishes Caesar; massacred Jerusalem diminishes Titus. Tyranny follows the tyrant. Woe to the man who leaves behind a shadow that bears his form.”

Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
Read more quotes from Victor Hugo


Share this quote:
Share on Twitter

Friends Who Liked This Quote

To see what your friends thought of this quote, please sign up!

37 likes
All Members Who Liked This Quote



This Quote Is From

Les Misérables Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
833,722 ratings, average rating, 24,993 reviews

Browse By Tag