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Quote by Victor Hugo

“So, kind brother, you refuse me a sol parisis to go and buy a crust from the baker? “Qui non laborat non manducet.” (He who does not work, let him not eat.) At this reply from the immovable archdeacon, Jehan hid his face in hins hands, like a woman sobbing, and exclaimed with an expression of despair: Oτoτoτoτoτoτ!” “What does that mean, monsieur?” asked Claude, surprised by this outburst. “What? Well,” said the student, raising two insolent eyes to Claude into which he had just stuck his firsts so as to make them look red from weeping, “it’s Greek! It’s an anapaest from Aeschylus which perfectly expresses grief.”

Quote by Victor Hugo

Author

Victor Hugo
Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo, a French romantic poet, novelist, and playwright, was born on February 26, 1802, and died on May 22, 1885. He is considered one of the greatest writers in French literary history, known for his profound humanistic concerns and rich imagination. more

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“Notre-Dame’s neighborhood has of course vastly improved since Victor Hugo’s day, although Bishop Sully certainly would not recognize Baron Haussmann’s vastly expanded parvis. Still, if you can catch a glimpse of Notre-Dame’s spire from the ancient Rue des Chantres or Place Maubert, and then follow the narrowest lanes you can find to the great cathedral’s western portals, you will be treading the path that countless medieval students and clerics have taken before you. And then look up, and up, relishing this direct link with a distant past. Here is Notre-Dame, the noble survivor of the centuries. Here is Notre-Dame—truly a cathedral for the ages.”