The Internet is popular on the Internet about the power of a timely idea, the authorship of which is attributed to the French writer. We decided to check if he said something like that.

The phrase about the power of the idea, the time of which came, indicating the authorship of Viktor Hugo meets Portals with collections Quote And aphorismsas well as on entertainment sites. It is divided by users of social networks ("VKontakte" X, Facebook*) And Platform blog. No less Popular And Another version statements, also attributed to the French writer: "No army can be compared with the power of the idea, the time of which came." Modern authors of popular science books and publicists are often Included In their own Texts A quote in both versions is precisely as a phrase Hugo.

Victor Hugo I managed to write dozens in my life works - From the novels “Cathedral of the Parisian Mother of God” and “outcasts” to essays and poems. However, in none of them “verified” it was not possible to detect the analyzed phrase or at least statements in close formulation. There was nothing similar in preserved and published letters Hugo, a quote is not mentioned on the sites of the writer's houses in Paris, Luxembourg And Gernssey. The closest statement on a similar topic that is in the work of the writer is a quote from an essay "The story of one crime»About the coup, as a result of which the French president Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte restored the empire and became Napoleon III. This text was written in hot pursuit - in 1852, and published only a quarter of a century later. In his essay, Hugo writes about revolutions as follows: "We can resist the invasion of the armies, but we cannot withstand the invasion of ideas." Nevertheless, this statement is significantly different from the disassembled both by formulation and meaning.

But the phrase, much closer to the analysis, is found in article writer Emil Sucleus O Schuanov uprising (supporters of the restoration of the monarchy after the Great French Revolution), published in the journal Revue des Deux Mondes in 1848: “Now in every human question there is something more powerful than strength, than courage, than a genius itself: this is an idea that has come.” And in 1861, the French writer Gustav Emar published the novel "Free arrows", Which contains a very similar statement:" The president of the Republic of Mexican from his own experience found out that in every human question there is something more powerful than the gross power of the bayonets: this is an idea, the time of which came and struck an hour. " Both of these phrases - both in the Sovestr and the enamar - were published long before the "history of one crime" came out, so it cannot even be assumed that the authors could be inspired by the statement of Hugo.

Emil Succan. Source: Jean-Hilaire BellocPublic Domain, Via Wikimedia Commons

Quote Investigator portal specializing in quotes discoveredThat for the first time the phrase about the idea that the time came was attributed to Gyugo as early as 1912 by the American politician Frederick Howe in an article on the electoral law of women in the Kansas newspaper The Burr Oak Held. Hou wrote: “Victor Hugo said that there is something stronger than the army, fleet or all material forces; This is "the idea that the time has come." Despite the fact that this statement was undoubtedly closer to the versions of Souventer and Emar, neither the first nor the second in the article are mentioned (probably because of its much smaller in comparison with Hugo fame). After that, as noted in the analysis of QUOTE Investigator, in the media the quote began to be attributed to the author of the “Cathedral of the Paris Mother of God” and “rejected” very often - only in articles of the first half of the 20th century did the researchers find dozens of examples.

Thus, in the relatively little -known essay of Victor Hugo, there really is a quote about the power of ideas, but it is significantly different from the phrase that is usually attributed to him. The formulations closer to the analysis were contained in the works of the French writers Emil Suzuwr and Gustav Emar, and they were published long before the “history of one crime” of Hugo, where he mentions the power of ideas that cannot be resisted. Nevertheless, at the beginning of the 20th century, in the American media, a statement about the idea, the time of which came, was massively attributed - probably by mistake - it was Hugo. And no one recalled about Sovevestra and Emara, whose quotes were much more like, as now: at least “verified” could not be found in the Russian -language segment of the Internet of examples, where the author of aphorism was called one of these writers.

*Russian authorities They think Meta Platforms Inc., which owns social networks Facebook and Instagram, an extremist organization, its activities in Russia are prohibited.

Photo on the cover: Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon)Public Domain, Via Wikimedia Commons