"Despots play their part in the works..." - Quote by Victor Hugo
Despots play their part in the works of thinkers. Fettered words are terrible words. The writer doubles and trebles the power of his writing when a ruler imposes silence on the people. Something emerges from that enforced silence, a mysterious fullness which filters through and becomes steely in the thought.
More by Victor Hugo
“He loved books; books are cold but safe friends.”
“The sunshine was delightful, the foliage gently astir, more from the activity of birds than from the breeze. One gallant little bird, doubtless lovelorn, was singing his heart out at the top of a tall tree.”
“The wise man does not grow old, but ripens.”
More on Power
“Money is far more persuasive than logical arguments.”
“When a government becomes powerful it is destructive, extravagant and violent; it is an usurer which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance, for votes with which to perpetuate itself.”
“If you have power, you have to empower.”
More on Writing
“Writing isn't something I do, writing is something that I am. I am writing - it's just an expression of me.”
“I felt very bad in Washington. . . I didn't like my job, and I didn't know what was going to happen to me, and I was cold and half-hungry, so I wrote a great many poems.”
“A pen is to me as a beak is to a hen.”