Quotes from book
The History of a Crime

Name: The History of a Crime
Author: Victor Hugo

Victor HugoOriginal title Histoire d'un crime (French)

The History of a Crime is an essay by Victor Hugo about Napoleon III's takeover of France.

“There is now, in France, in each village, a lighted torch—the schoolmaster—and a mouth which blows upon it—the curé.”

Victor Hugo book The History of a Crime

Il y a maintenant en France dans chaque village un flambeau allumé, le maître d'école, et une bouche qui souffle dessus, le curé. Histoire d'un crime. Déposition d'un témoin (1877), Deuxième Journée. La lutte, ch. III: La barricade Saint-Antoine T. H. Joyce and Arthur Locker (tr.), The History of a Crime: The Testimony of an Eye-Witness (1877), The Second Day, Chapter III, p. 120 http://books.google.com/books?id=CT1BkrtaFlIC&pg=PA120&dq=%22There+is+now,+in+France,%22 Translation: In every French village there is now a lighted torch, the schoolmaster; and a mouth trying to blow it out, the priest. Huntington Smith (tr.), History of a Crime (1888), The Second Day, Chapter III, p. 187 http://books.google.com/books?id=idfUAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA187&dq=%22In+every+French+village+there+is+now+a+lighted+torch%22 Variants: There is in every village a torch: The schoolteacher/teacher. And an extinguisher: The priest/clergyman.

“Literal translations:”

Victor Hugo book The History of a Crime

On résiste à l'invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l'invasion des idées. One resists the invasion of armies; one does not resist the invasion of ideas. One withstands the invasion of armies; one does not withstand the invasion of ideas. Histoire d'un Crime (The History of a Crime) [written 1852, published 1877], Conclusion, ch. X. Trans. T.H. Joyce and Arthur Locker http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Histoire_d%E2%80%99un_crime_-_Conclusion#X. Alternative translations and paraphrased variants: One cannot resist an idea whose time has come. No one can resist an idea whose time has come. Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come. Armies cannot stop an idea whose time has come. No army can stop an idea whose time has come. Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come. There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come. Many of these paraphrases have a closer match in a passage from Gustave Aimard's earlier-published novel Les Francs-Tireurs (1861): there is something more powerful than the brute force of bayonets: it is the idea whose time has come and hour struck Original French: 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 Source: [The Freebooters, Gustave, Aimard, (tr. unknown), 1861, London, Ward and Lock, 57, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/chi.087603619?urlappend=%3Bseq=67] Source: [Les Francs Tireurs, Gustave, Aimard, 1861, Paris, Amyot, 68, http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b596684?urlappend=%3Bseq=76]

“I only take a half share in the civil war; I am willing to die, I am not willing to kill.”

Victor Hugo book The History of a Crime

Histoire d'un crime (The History of a Crime) [written 1852, published 1877], Quatrième journée. La victoire, ch. II: Les Faits de la nuit. Quartier des Halles. Trans. T.H. Joyce and Arthur Locker