I'm reading Les Misérables, more or less at the same pace as the augustin. In any event, I just finished the first book, on the Kindle.
The translation and transliteration seem iffy; the Kindle version is slightly different than the Google Text in the link. So if anyone has a better translation of any passage I quote, feel free to post.
I was struck by a few passages in Book I that seem relevant to today's political scene. Continued under the fold.
From Ch. 8, a commentary on today's so-called libertarians:
The Bishop clapped his hands.
"That's talking!" he exclaimed. "What an excellent and really marvellous thing is this materialism! Not every one who wants it can have it. Ah ! when one does have it, one is no longer a dupe, one does not stupidly allow one's self to be exiled like Cato, nor stoned like Stephen, nor burned alive like Jeanne d'Arc. Those who have succeeded in procuring this admirable materialism have the joy of feeling themselves irresponsible, and of thinking that they can devour everything without uneasiness -- places, sinecures, dignities, power, whether well or ill acquired, lucrative recantations, useful treacheries, savory capitulations of conscience, — and that they shall enter the tomb with their digestion accomplished. How agreeable that is!"
From Ch 13, reconciling religion and science:
He thought of the grandeur and the presence of God; of the future eternity, that strange mystery; of the eternity past, a mystery still more strange; of all the infinities, which pierced their way into all his senses, beneath his eyes; and, without seeking to comprehend the incomprehensible, he gazed upon it. He did not study God; he was dazzled by him. Ho considered those magnificent conjunctions of atoms, which communicate aspects to matter, reveal forces by verifying them, create individualities in unity, proportions in extent, the innumerable in the infinite, and, through light, produce beauty. These conjunctions are formed and dissolved incessantly; hence life and death.
Also from Ch 13, how bureaucracies such as the church stifle innovation and introspection:
The apostle may be daring, but the bishop must be timid.