“At what hour, please? retort to Victor Cousin, after he claimed he could pinpoint the start of the (perceived) decay of the French language: 1978.”

—  Victor Hugo

À quelle heure, s'il vous plaît?
Choses vues 1830-1846, Séance du 23 Novembre 1843

Original

À quelle heure, s'il vous plaît?

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "At what hour, please? retort to Victor Cousin, after he claimed he could pinpoint the start of the (perceived) decay of…" by Victor Hugo?
Victor Hugo photo
Victor Hugo 308
French poet, novelist, and dramatist 1802–1885

Related quotes

Sarah Bernhardt photo

“Victor Hugo could not promise without keeping his word. He was not like me: I promise everything with the firm intention of keeping my promises, and two hours after I have forgotten all about them.”

Sarah Bernhardt (1844–1923) French actress

Source: My Double Life (1907), Ch. 25
Context: Victor Hugo could not promise without keeping his word. He was not like me: I promise everything with the firm intention of keeping my promises, and two hours after I have forgotten all about them. If any one reminds me of what I have promised, I tear my hair, and to make up for my forgetfulness I say anything, I buy presents — in fact, I complicate my life with useless worries. It has always been thus, and always will be so.

Philippa Gregory photo
Marlene Dietrich photo
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker photo

“But he would only be allowed it; he could not claim it as his own.”

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (1854–1939) American journalist and anarchist

¶ 13
State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree, and Wherin They Differ (1888)
Context: What other applications this principle of Authority, once adopted in the economic sphere, will develop is very evident. It means the absolute control by the majority of all individual conduct. The right of such control is already admitted by the State Socialists, though they maintain that, as a matter of fact, the individual would be allowed a much larger liberty than he now enjoys. But he would only be allowed it; he could not claim it as his own. There would be no foundation of society upon a guaranteed equality of the largest possible liberty. Such liberty as might exist would exist by sufferance and could be taken away at any moment. Constitutional guarantees would be of no avail. There would be but one article in the constitution of a State Socialistic country: “The right of the majority is absolute.”

Richard Wright photo
Leonid Brezhnev photo

“I shall add that only he who has decided to commit suicide can start a nuclear war in the hope of emerging a victor from it. No matter what the attacker might possess, no matter what method of unleashing nuclear war he chooses, he will not attain his aims. Retribution will inevitably ensue.”

Leonid Brezhnev (1906–1982) General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

As quoted in Soviet Strategy and the New Military Thinking (1992) by Derek Leebaert and Timothy Dickinson, p. 68

Chinua Achebe photo
Vasyl Slipak photo
William Shakespeare photo

Related topics