Victor Hugo Quotes

There is no force so powerful as an idea whose time has come.

Greater than the tread of mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.

An idea whose time has come cannot be stopped by any army or any force.

All the forces in the world are not so powerful as an idea whose time has come.

Every revolution seems impossible at the beginning, and after it happens, it was inevitable.

Nothing else in the world... not all the armies... is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.

Only force would produce social change.

If the world is turning, even the church can’t stop it; if it isn’t turning, nobody can go out and make it turn.

Ideas move fast when their time comes.

My countrymen, the currents of destiny flow through the hearts of the people. Who will check them ? Who will divert them? Who will stop them?

I'm starting to realize there's no stopping us now. An idea, a feeling, a movement can't just be squashed. It's impossible now.

One cannot resist an idea whose time has come.

Changes and progress very rarely are gifts from above. They come out of struggles from below.

All big changes of the world come from words.

There never was a social change in America without angry people at the heart.

Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.

You can't sit on the lid of progress. If you do, you will be blown to pieces.

Back in those days we thought we could change the world.

A reform is a correction of abuses; a revolution is a transfer of power.

You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea.

A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new; when an age ends; and when the soul of a nation long suppressed finds utterance.

The revolution is a torrent which sweeps aside those who resist it.

A revolution is an idea that has found bayonets.

Nations are liable to various revolutions in the state of their minds, and extent of their knowledge, as well as in their power and wealth ….

Gentlemen, since the settlement of that Constitution, now nearly two centuries ago, England has never experienced a revolution, though there is no country in which there has been so continuous and such considerable change. How is this? Because the wisdom of your forefathers placed the prize of supreme power without the sphere of human passions. Whatever the struggle of parties, whatever the strife of factions, whatever the excitement and exaltation of the public mind, there has always been something in this country round which all classes and parties could rally, representing the majesty of the law, the administration of justice, and involving, at the same time, the security for every man's rights and the fountain of honor.