Success is a very hideous thing, and its resemblance with …

Success is a very hideous thing, and its resemblance with merit deceives men. For the herd, success has nearly the same profile as supremacy.Success, that twin brother of talent, has a dupe, – history.Tacitus and Juvenal alone grumble at it.In our days an almost official philosophy wears the livery of success, and waits in its ante-room.Succeed, that is the theory, for prosperity presupposes capacity.Win in the lottery and you are a clever man, for he who triumphs is revered.All you want is to be born under a fortunate star.Have luck and you will have the rest, be fortunate and you will be thought a great man; leaving out five or six immense exceptions, which form the lustre of an age, contemporary admiration is blear-eyedness.

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo