Quote Origin: Nothing Is More Powerful Than an Idea Whose Time Has Come

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Victor Hugo? Émile Souvestre? Gustave Aimard? Frederic C. Howe? Ralph Waldo Trine? Benjamin Disraeli? Anonymous?

Illuminated lightbulb representing an idea

Question for Quote Investigator: An idea can transform a culture and catalyze historical changes. Here are three expressions from a family of pertinent sayings:

(1) Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
(2) Nothing can stand against the idea whose time has come.
(3) No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.

Sayings of this type have been attributed to the famous French novelist Victor Hugo, but I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic.

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1877 Victor Hugo published “Histoire d’un crime” (“The History of a Crime”) which discussed the coup d’état staged by Louis-Napoléon Bonapart. The work contained a thematically germane statement. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1

Tout le phénomène actuel est dans ces quelques mots. On résiste à l’invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l’invasion des idées.

Here is one possible translation:

The whole current phenomenon is summed up in these few words. An invasion of armies can be resisted; an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted.

Interestingly, the above statement was not a close match to the modern instances of the saying attributed to Victor Hugo. QI believes that the family of sayings evolved over time. The earliest member of the family located by QI appeared in the periodical “Revue des deux mondes” (“Two Worlds Review”) in 1848 within an article by French novelist Émile Souvestre:2

Or, dans toute question humaine, il y a quelque chose de plus puissant que la force, que le courage, que le génie même: c’est l’idée dont le temps est venu.

Here is one possible translation:

Now, in every human question, there is something more powerful than strength, than courage, than genius itself: it is the idea whose time has come.

Souvestre was writing about the Chouannerie, a complex uprising in France. Souvestre believed that the forces he favored would ultimately prevail.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1861 French novelist Gustave Aimard published “Les rodeurs de frontières” (“The Border Rifles”) about the Mexican-American War. The book contained a passage echoing the words of Souvestre:3

… qu’il avait fini par comprendre que dans toute question humaine il ya quelque chose de plus puissant que la force, que le courage, que le génie même, et que ce quelque chose c’est l’idée dont le temps est venu, dont l’heure a sonné à l’horloge de Dieu. Alors, oubliant toute préoccupation, il espéra en un avenir certain. 

A translation of Aimard’s novel into English by Frederic Wraxall also appeared in 1861:4

. . . he learned at length that in every human question there is something more powerful than force, than courage, even than genius, and that this something is the idea whose time has come, whose hour has struck by the clock of Deity. Hence he forgot all his annoyances in hoping for a certain future.

Gustave Aimard published another novel in 1861 titled “Les francs tireurs” (“The Freebooters”) which contained a different instance in the family of sayings:5

Le président de la république mexicaine apprit alors à ses dépens que, dans toute question humaine, il y a quelque chose de plus puissant que la force brutale des baïonnettes : c’est l’idée dont le temps est venu et l’heure est sonnée.

The English translation by Frederic Wraxall appeared in the same year:6

The President of the Mexican Republic then learned at his own cost that, in every human question, there is something more powerful than the brute force of bayonets: it is the idea whose time has come and hour struck.

In 1877 Victor Hugo published “Histoire d’un crime” (“The History of a Crime”) as mentioned at the beginning of this article. In 1878 a translation into English appeared in “The Graphic” of London, England:7

The whole phenomenon lies in these few words. An invasion of armies can be resisted; an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted.

In 1888 a slightly different translation appeared within a multivolume collection of works by Victor Hugo:8

There lies the whole secret. An invasion of armies can be resisted, but there is no resistance to an invasion of ideas.

In 1912 a newspaper in Kansas published a short piece by politician Frederic C. Howe about the desirability and inevitability of women’s suffrage. Howe presented a modified version of Hugo’s statement which was closer to the statements of Émile Souvestre and Gustave Aimard. This saying was also closer to the popular modern instances:9

Victor Hugo said there is one thing stronger than armies or navies, or all material forces; it is “the idea whose time has come.”

In 1914 a newspaper in Birmingham, Alabama printed an instance of the saying while acknowledging another periodical:10

As Victor Hugo well says, nothing can stand against “the idea whose time has come.”—Woman’s Journal.

In 1917 New Thought philosopher Ralph Waldo Trine published “The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit”, and he credited Hugo with the following instance:11

I know of no finer words penned in any language—this time it was in the French—to express an unvarying truth than these words by Victor Hugo: “There is one thing that is stronger than armies, and that is an idea whose time has come.”

In April 1917 the religious periodical “Friends’ Intelligencer” of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania printed the following epigraph:12

There is one thing that is stronger than armies, and that is an idea whose time has come.—VICTOR HUGO.

In 1921 “Northwestern Christian Advocate” of Chicago, Illinois printed an instance attributed to Hugo:13

“There is nothing on earth so powerful as an idea whose time has come,” said Victor Hugo.

In 1921 “The Outlook” of London printed a statement from Seventh-Day Adventists which contained the following:14

God is behind it, and nothing can impede its progress. As another has said, ‘There is no army so powerful as an idea whose time has come.’

In 1932 physician W. Beran Wolfe published a piece in “Medical Economics” magazine which contained an instance:15

Victor Hugo once wrote, “No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.”

In 1934 a periodical published by the U.S. Federal Housing Administration called “Better Housing” printed an anonymous instance:16

“There is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come”

In 1939 a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate printed a letter from the National Industrial Council which credited British statesman Benjamin Disraeli with an instance:17

Disraeli once said, “There is nothing in the world so powerful as an idea whose time has come.”

In 1942 H. L. Mencken published “A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources” which contained an entry crediting Hugo. Mencken did not include a citation:18

No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.
VICTOR HUGO (1802-85)

In 1960 “American Bar Association Journal” printed an article by Economics Professor John D. Garwood which contained the following instance:19

Victor Hugo is quoted as saying that nothing in this world is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.

In 1963 U.S. magazine magnate Henry R. Luce mentioned the saying, but he did not credit a specific person:20

We recall the famous maxim that nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come. Has the time come for the idea of world law?

In 1964 “Time” magazine printed an advertisement from Container Corporation of America which showed a painting of a stylized suit of armor by the artist Robert Vickrey. The caption contained an instance attributed to Hugo:21

Nothing else in the world
… not all the armies
… is so powerful as an idea
whose time has come.

Great Ideas of Western Man … one of a series
Victor Hugo, 1802-1885, The Future of Man

In 1977 Laurence J. Peter published “Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time” which included an instance attributed to Hugo. Peter also included a fun variant about quotations:22

There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: and that is an idea whose time has come.
—Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Stronger than an army is a quotation whose time has come.
—W. I. E. Gates

In conclusion, the unstoppable power of an idea whose time has come was depicted in a quotation by Émile Souvestre published in 1848. Souvestre’s quotation rendered into English was: “There is something more powerful than strength, than courage, than genius itself: it is the idea whose time has come.”

In 1861 Gustave Aimard published a very similar quotation in “Les rodeurs de frontières” (“The Border Rifles”). Also, in 1861 Aimard published “Les francs tireurs” (“The Freebooters”) which contained a different instance which appeared in English as: “There is something more powerful than the brute force of bayonets: it is the idea whose time has come and hour struck.”

Next, in 1877 Victor Hugo published “Histoire d’un crime” (“The History of a Crime”) which contained a quotation which rendered into English was: “An invasion of armies can be resisted; an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted.”

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries many variations of this notion have proliferated, e.g., “There is one thing that is stronger than armies, and that is an idea whose time has come” and “There is nothing on earth so powerful as an idea whose time has come”. QI believes that these sayings evolved from the earlier expressions. QI recommends using precise statements with correct attributions.

Image Notes: Illustration of an illuminated lightbulb from geralt at Pixabay.

Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Charles Sheehan whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Special thanks to previous researchers Nigel Rees and Fred R. Shapiro who pointed to the 1877 citation in “Histoire d’un crime”. Rees also pointed to the 1944 Mencken citation and the entertaining 1977 citation.

  1. 1877, Histoire d’un crime (The History of a Crime) by Victor Hugo, Chapter: Conclusion: La Chute, Section 10, Quote Page 334, Libraire-Éditeur J. Hetzel, Paris. (HathiTrust Full View) link ↩︎
  2. 1848, Revue des deux mondes (Two Worlds Review), Article: La Chouannerie dans Le Poitou: Le Sonneur de Cloches (The Bell Ringer), Author: Émile Souvestre, Start Page 191, Quote Page 194, Meline, Cans et Compagnie, Bruxelles. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  3. 1866 (First published 1861), Les rodeurs de frontières (The Border Rifles) by Gustave Aimard, Sixième Édition (Sixth Edition), Chapter 21: Le Jaguar, Quote Page 238, Amyot, Éditeur, Paris. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  4. 1861, The Border Rifles: A Tale of the Texan War by Gustave Aimard, Translation by F. C. L. Wraxall (Sir Frederic Wraxall), Chapter: The Jaguar, Quote Page 207, Ward and Lock, London, England. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  5. 1861, Les francs tireurs by Gustave Aimard, Chapter 5: Le général Rubio, Quote Page 68, Amyot, Éditeur, Paris. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  6. 1861, The Freebooters: A Story of the Texan War by Gustave Aimard, Translation by F. C. L. Wraxall (Sir Frederic Wraxall), Chapter 5: General Rubio, Quote Page 52, Ward and Lock, London. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  7. 1878 June 22, The Graphic, The History of a Crime: The Testimony of an Eye-Witness by Victor Hugo, Chapter: Conclusion—The Fall, Start Page 617, Quote Page 618, Column 2, London, England. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  8. 1888, The Works of Victor Hugo, History of Crime, Volume 2, Translated by Huntington Smith, Chapter: Conclusion—The Fall, Section 10, Quote Page 237, The Kelmscott Society, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  9. 1912 May 30, The Burr Oak Herald, Woman’s Suffrage Notes by Hon. Frederic C. Howe, Quote Page 1, Column 3, Burr Oak, Kansas. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
  10. 1914 July 12, The Birmingham News, Section: Social, Woman’s Suffrage: A Department Conducted by the Birmingham Equal Suffrage Association, Edited by Amelia Worthington, Quote Page 12, Column 3, Birmingham, Alabama. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
  11. 1917 Copyright, The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit by Ralph Waldo Trine, Chapter 13: Our Sole Agency of International Peace, and International Concord, Quote Page 216, Dodge Publishing Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  12. 1917 April 21, Friends’ Intelligencer, (Freestanding epigraph), Quote Page 246, Column 1, (Note: Date uses the term “Fourth Month” for April) Friends’ Intelligencer Association, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  13. 1921 September 14, Northwestern Christian Advocate: An Official Paper of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Brief Editorial Comment, Quote Page 1003, Column 2, Methodist Book Concern, Chicago, Illinois. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  14. 1921 February 21, The Outlook, Volume 55, Number 1412, Official Statement from Seventh-Day Adventists supplied by A. S. Maxwell,  Quote Page 132, Column 1, New Outlook Company Ltd., London, England. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  15. 1932 March, Medical Economics: The Business Magazine of the Medical Profession, Volume 9, Number 6, Mental Hygiene by W. Beran Wolfe M.D., Start Page 22, Quote Page 22, Column 2, Medical Economics Inc., Rutherford, New Jersey. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  16. 1934 September 20, Better Housing, Volume 1, Number 1, (Freestanding epigraph), Quote Page 3 (unnumbered), The Federal Housing Administration, Washington D.C. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
  17. 1939, United States Senate, Seventy-Sixth Congress, First Session,  Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, Violations of Free Speech and Rights of Labor, Date: January 16, 1939, Supplementary Exhibits, National Industrial Council – Action Letter, Start Page 15139, Quote Page 15142, United States Printing Office, Washington D.C. (Google Books Full View) ↩︎
  18. 1942, A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles from Ancient and Modern Sources, Selected and Edited by H. L. Mencken (Henry Louis Mencken), Section: Idea, Quote Page 566, Column 2, Alfred A. Knopf. New York. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
  19. 1960 December, American Bar Association Journal (ABA Journal), Volume 46, Number 12, Basic Changes in the Tax Structure by John D. Garwood (Professor of Economics at Fort Hays Kansas State College), Start Page 1310, Quote Page 1310, American Bar Association, Chicago, Illinois. (Google Books Preview) ↩︎
  20. 1963 August, American Bar Association Journal (ABA Journal), Volume 49, Number 8, The Rule of Law: Its World Implementation Is Man’s Hope by Henry R. Luce (Editor-in-Chief of Time Inc.), Start Page 727, Quote Page 729, American Bar Association, Chicago, Illinois. (Google Books Preview) ↩︎
  21. 1964 January 31, Time, Volume 83, Number 5, (Advertisement for Container Corporation of America), Quote Page 63, Time Inc, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
  22. 1977, Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time, Compiled by Laurence J. Peter, Section: Quotations, Quote Page 260 and 419, William Morrow and Company, New York. (Verified on with hardcopy) ↩︎
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