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
The ideal and the beautiful are identical; the ideal corresponds to the idea, and beauty to form; hence idea and substance are cognate.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The ideal and beautiful are intertwined concepts, where ideals embody ideas and beauty represents their tangible form.
Victor Hugo suggests that the concepts of the ideal and beauty are fundamentally connected; the ideal represents a conceptual notion whereas beauty represents the physical manifestation of that notion. In this view, what we perceive as beauty in art or nature is a direct reflection of the ideas we hold, indicating that true beauty arises from the integrity of its underlying idea.
Themes
IdealBeautyArtFormIdea
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of art in society, this quote could exemplify the relationship between an artist's concept and their work's aesthetic appeal.
More from Victor Hugo
All quotes βWhen two mouths, made sacred by love, draw near to each other to create, it is impossible, that above that ineffable kiss there should not be a thrill in the immense mystery of the stars.
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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 Cosetteβs 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!
Victor HugoRead
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