This lowly sand which you trample beneath your feet, if you cast it into the furnace, and let it melt and seethe, shall become resplendent crystal, and by means of such as it a Galileo and a Newton shall discover stars.

[Ce vil sable que vous foulez aux pieds, qu’on le jette dans la fournaise, qu’il y fonde et qu’il y bouillonne, il deviendra cristal splendide, et c’est grâce à lui que Galilée et Newton découvriront les astres.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer

Les Misérables, Vol. 3 “Marius,” Book 1 “Paris Atomised,” ch. 12 “The Future Latent in the People” (1862) [tr. Wilbour]