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
Prayer is an august avowal of ignorance.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Prayer acknowledges human limitations and the mysteries of existence.
In this quote, Victor Hugo suggests that prayer is a profound admission of our own ignorance regarding the complexities of life and the universe. By engaging in prayer, we recognize that there are things beyond our understanding and control, which reflects a humble approach to existence and an openness to the unknown.
Themes
PrayerIgnoranceHumilityUnderstandingMystery
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech on spirituality, one might use this quote to illustrate the depth of human inquiry.
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.
Victor HugoRead
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.
Victor HugoRead
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.
Victor HugoRead
Taste is the common sense of genius.
Victor HugoRead
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
Similar quotes
To rewrite history on the bases of hypotheses which have not materialized is not only a fruitless task, but, in my eyes, meaningless.
Jean MonnetRead
The press doesn't stop publishing, by the way, in a fascist escalation; it simply watches what it says. That too can be an incremental process, and the pace at which the free press polices itself depends on how journalists are targeted.
Naomi WolfRead
Sometimes he could almost forget that it was there, the way you forget about the sky or the earth underfoot, but there were other times when it seemed as if there was nothing else in the world.
George R. R. MartinRead
I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me.
Kwame NkrumahRead
What we really are is a community of mind, knitted together by codes and symbols, intuitions, aspirations, histories, hopes - the invisible world of the human experience is far more real to us than the visible world, which is little more than a kind of stage or screen on which we move.
Terence MckennaRead
The Trinity is the basis of the gospel, and the gospel is a declaration of the Trinity in action.
J. I. PackerRead