“An invasion of armies can be resisted, but not an idea whose time has come.”
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist
“No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.”
Variant: No force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come
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Victor Hugo308
French poet, novelist, and dramatist 1802–1885Related quotes
“There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”
Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French poet, novelist, and dramatist
Often attributed to Hugo as a paraphrase of a similar idea in his Histore d'un Crime (1877): "One resists the invasion of armies; one does not resist the invasion of ideas", the wording of this famous statement actually more closely resembles a passage from the relatively obscure Les Francs-Tireurs (1861) by Gustave Aimard, p. 68 https://books.google.com/books/about/Les_francs_tireurs.html?id=mKI4AQAAIAAJ: <br class="br">Il y a quelque chose de plus puissant que la force brutale des baïonnettes: c'est l'idée dont le temps est venu et l'heure est sonnée. <br class="br">There is something more powerful than the brute force of bayonets: it is the idea whose time has come and hour struck. <br class="br">Translated into English as The Freebooters : A Story of the Texan War (1861) https://archive.org/details/freebootersstory00aima, p. 57, Ward & Lock edition <br class="br">Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: More powerful than the mighty armies is an idea whose time has come.
Everett Dirksen (1896–1969) United States Army officer
Paraphrasing Victor Hugo when speaking about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Civil_Rights_Filibuster_Ended.htm (10 June 1964) <br class="br">1960s
John W. Kingdon (1940) American political scientist
Source: Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies - (Second Edition), Chapter 1, How Does an Idea's Time Come?, p. 1
Werner Erhard (1935) Critical Thinker and Author
Quote from 1977, re: The Hunger Project
[178, Larson's Book of World Religions and Alternative Spirituality, Bob Larson, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2004, 084236417X]
Attributed
Geoffrey Blainey (1930) Australian historian
"Gallipoli: A Battle for a Mammoth Prize," The Australian (April 24, 1990)
Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America
2014, Address to European Youth (March 2014)
Context: It’s not a sign of strength. Anybody can make threats. Anyone can move an army. Anyone can show off a missile. That doesn’t make you strong. It does not lead to security, or opportunity, or respect. Those things don't come through force. They have to be earned. And real strength is allowing an open and participatory democracy, where people can choose their own leaders and choose their own destiny. And real strength is allowing a vibrant society, where people can think and pray and speak their minds as they please, even if it’s against their leaders -- especially if it’s against their leaders. Real strength is allowing free and open markets that have built growing, thriving middle classes and lifted millions of people out of poverty.
“The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, lies in its loyalty to each other.”
Mario Puzo (1920–1999) American Novelist
Omar Bradley (1893–1981) United States Army field commander during World War II
Source: A Soldier's Story (1951), p. xi.