It seemed to be a necessary ritual that he should prepare himself for sleep by meditating under the solemnity of the night sky... a mysterious transaction between the infinity of the soul and the infinity of the universe.
Victor HugoRead
My childhood began, as everybody's childhood begins, with prejudices. Man finds prejudices beside his cradle, puts them from him a little in the course of his career, and often, alas! takes to them again in his old age.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on how prejudices are ingrained in us from childhood and how we may shed them only to return to them later in life.
Victor Hugo's quote suggests that prejudices are a fundamental part of the human experience, starting from early childhood. He emphasizes that while we may initially reject these biases as we grow, it is common for individuals to revert to them in their later years, highlighting the challenge of overcoming ingrained beliefs and the cyclical nature of human thought.
Themes
PrejudiceChildhoodBeliefsHuman NatureBias
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about overcoming social biases.
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At that moment of love, a moment when passion is absolutely silent under omnipotence of ecstasy, Marius, pure seraphic Marius, would have been more capable of visiting a woman of the streets than of raising Cosette’s dress above the ankle. Once on a moonlit night, Cosette stopped to pick up something from the ground, her dress loosened and revealed the swelling of her breasts. Marius averted his eyes.
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Thought is the work of the intellect, reverie is its self-indulgence. To substitute day-dreaming for thought is to confuse a poison with a source of nourishment.
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Taste is the common sense of genius.
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Forget not, never forget that you have promised me to use this silver to become an honest man.... Jean Valjean, my brother: you belong no longer to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I am buying for you. I withdraw it from dark thoughts and from the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God!
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