Friday, July 5, 2013

On Human Condition

Mississauga Chinatown 5 (2013, 6.4) by rchoephoto
Mississauga Chinatown 5 (2013, 6.4), a photo by rchoephoto on Flickr.


     So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom,
     decrees of damnation pronounced by society, 
     artificially creating hells amid the civilization of earth, 
     and adding the element of human fate to divine destiny; 
     so long as the three great problems of the century - 
     the degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption 
     of woman through hunger, the crippling of children 
     through lack of light—are unsolved; 
     so long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world; 
     in other words, and with a still wider significance, 
     so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth, 
     books of the nature of Les Misérables cannot fail to be of use.

        Victor Hugo, Preface to Les Misérables

No comments:

Post a Comment