When he [Bishop Myriel] saw everyone condemning very loudly and being very quick to express indignation, “Oh my,” he would say with a smile, “this looks like being a great crime that everyone commits. Here we have hypocrisies in fright, hurrying to protest and to take cover.”
[Quand il voyait tout le monde crier bien fort et s’indigner bien vite: — «Oh! oh! disait-il en souriant, il y a apparence que ceci est un gros crime que tout le monde commet. Voilà les hypocrisies effarées qui se dépêchent de protester et de se mettre à couvert.»]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 1 “Fantine,” Book 1 “An Upright Man,” ch. 4 (1.1.4) (1862) [tr. Donougher (2013)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:When he heard many exclaiming, and expressing great indignation against anything, “Oh! oh!” he would say, smiling. “It would seem that this is a great crime, of which they are all guilty. How frightened hypocrisy hastens to defend itself, and to get under cover.”
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]When he saw everybody cry out and grow indignant, all of a sudden, he would say with a smile, “Oh! oh, it seems as if this is a great crime which all the world is committing. Look at the startled hypocrites, hastening to protest and place themselves under cover.”
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]When he saw everyone exclaiming very loudly, and growing angry very quickly, "Oh! oh!" he said, with a smile; "to all appearance, this is a great crime which all the world commits. These are hypocrisies which have taken fright, and are in haste to make protest and to put themselves under shelter."
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]Any ill-considered outburst of popular indignation would cause him to smile. ‘It appears,’ he would say, ‘that this is a crime which everyone commits. See how outraged hypocrisy hurries to cover itself!’
[tr. Denny (1976)]When he heard people raising a hue and cry, easily finding fault, "Oh ho!" he would say, with a smile. "It would seem that this is a great crime that everyone commits. See how an offended hypocrisy is quick to protest and run for cover."
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]
Quotations about:
hypocrite
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HYPOCRITE, n. One who, professing virtues that he does not respect, secures the advantage of seeming to be what he despises.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Hypocrite,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
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Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1885-08-22).
There is no more contemptible type of human character that that of the nerveless sentimentalist and dreamer, who spends his life in a weltering sea of sensibility and emotion, but who never does a manly concrete deed.
William James (1842-1910) American psychologist and philosopher
The Principles of Psychology, Vol. 1, ch. 4 “Habit” (1890)
(Source)
This chapter originally published in Popular Science Monthly (Feb 1887).
They are not all Saints who use Holy Water.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #4956 (1732)
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We must not conclude merely upon a man’s haranguing upon liberty, and using the charming sound, that he is fit to be trusted with the liberties of his country. It is not unfrequent to hear men declaim loudly upon liberty, who, if we may judge by the whole tenor of their actions, mean nothing else by it but their own liberty, — to oppress without control or the restraint of laws all who are poorer or weaker than themselves.
