“The greatest products of architecture are less the works of individuals than of society; rather the offspring of a nation's effort, than the inspired flash of a man of genius…”

—  Victor Hugo , book The Hunchback of Notre Dame

Source: The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The greatest products of architecture are less the works of individuals than of society; rather the offspring of a nati…" by Victor Hugo?
Victor Hugo photo
Victor Hugo 308
French poet, novelist, and dramatist 1802–1885

Related quotes

Chiang Kai-shek photo

“I would rather have no offspring than sacrifice our nation's interests.”

Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975) Chinese politician and military leader

The Generalissimo's son: Chiang Ching-kuo and the revolutions in China and Taiwan, Jay Taylor, 2000, Harvard University Press, 74, 0674002873, 2010-06-28 http://books.google.com/books?id=_5R2fnVZXiwC&pg=PA59&dq=chiang+sacrifice+son&hl=en&ei=nQW9TLK5MoT68Aaw9uAC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=chiang%20son%20i%20would%20rather%20have%20no%20offspring%20than%20sacrifice%20our%20%20interests&f=false,

Samuel Taylor Coleridge photo

“The principle of the Gothic architecture is infinity made imaginable. It is no doubt a sublimer effort of genius than the Greek style; but then it depends much more on execution for its effect.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

29 June 1833
Table Talk (1821–1834)

“Inspiration usually comes during work, rather than before it.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

The Summer of the Great-Grandmother (1974), p. 143

Chiang Kai-shek photo

“"I would rather have no offspring than sacrifice our nation's interests." Chiang had absolutely no intention of stopping the war against the Communists.”

Chiang Kai-shek (1887–1975) Chinese politician and military leader

“Correspondingly, the work group became central rather than the individual jobholder.”

Eric Trist (1909–1993) British scientist

The evolution of socio-technical systems, (1981)

Paul Sweezy photo

“Society is more than a number of individuals. It is a number of individuals among whom certain definite and more or less stable relations exist.”

Paul Sweezy book The Theory of Capitalist Development

The Theory of Capitalist Development (1942)

“Rather than being their greatest single asset, knowing to do the technical (professional) work of the business becomes their greatest single liability.”

Michael E. Gerber (1936) American business writer

Cited in: Jurnal ekonomi. (1999) Nr. 9, p. 12
The E-Myth Revisited, 1995

Arthur Schopenhauer photo

“Talent works for money and fame; the motive which moves genius to productivity is, on the other hand, less easy to determine.”

Arthur Schopenhauer book Parerga and Paralipomena

Vol. 2 "On Philosophy and the Intellect" as translated in Essays and Aphorisms (1970), as translated by R. J. Hollingdale
Parerga and Paralipomena (1851), Counsels and Maxims
Context: Talent works for money and fame; the motive which moves genius to productivity is, on the other hand, less easy to determine. It isn’t money, for genius seldom gets any. It isn’t fame: fame is too uncertain and, more closely considered, of too little worth. Nor is it strictly for its own pleasure, for the great exertion involved almost outweighs the pleasure. It is rather an instinct of a unique sort by virtue of which the individual possessed of genius is impelled to express what he has seen and felt in enduring works without being conscious of any further motivation. It takes place, by and large, with the same sort of necessity as a tree brings forth fruit, and demands of the world no more than a soil on which the individual can flourish.

D.H. Lawrence photo

“Humanity is a huge aggregate lie, and a huge lie is less than a small truth. Humanity is less, far less than the individual, because the individual may sometimes be capable of truth, and humanity is a tree of lies. And they say that love is the greatest thing; they persist in SAYING this, the foul liars, and just look at what they do! Look at all the millions of people who repeat every minute that love is the greatest, and charity is the greatest— and see what they are doing all the time. By their works ye shall know them, for dirty liars and cowards, who daren't stand by their own actions, much less by their own words.”

D.H. Lawrence book Women in Love

Source: Women in Love (1920), Ch. 11

Georges Sorel photo

“Mussolini is a man no less extraordinary than Lenin. He, too, is a political genius, of a greater reach than all the statesmen of the day, with the only exception of Lenin…”

Georges Sorel (1847–1922) French philosopher and sociologist

As quoted in The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution: The Origins of Ideological Polarization in the 20th Century, Jacob L. Talmon, University of California Press (1981) p. 451. Sorel’s March 1921 conversations with Jean Variot, published in Variot’s Propos de Georges Sorel, (1935) Paris, pp. 53-57, 66-86 passim

Related topics