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Men are still men. The despot's wickedness
Comes of ill teaching, and of power's excess,—
Comes of the purple he from childhood wears,
Slaves would be tyrants if the chance were theirs.

— Victor Hugo

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More quotes by Victor Hugo

Happy, even in anguish, is he to whom God has given a soul worthy of love and of grief!

Les Misérables (1862)

One can no more pray too much than love too much.

Les Misérables (1862)

The best way to worship God is to love your wife.

Les Misérables (1862)

To love or to have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life. To love is a consummation.

Les Misérables (1862)

To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better.

Ninety-Three (1874)

All Victor Hugo quotes →

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The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

Robert Anton Wilson

When we see a great man desiring power instead of his real goal we soon recognize that he is sick, or more precisely that his attitude to his work is sick.

Martin Buber What is Man? (1938)

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

C. S. Lewis God in the Dock (1970)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Victor Hugo (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.