一八一四年，俄、奥、普联军兵临巴黎城下，理工学校学生要求参战。后来，这句名言被刻在巴黎理工学校梯型大教室的天花板正中心，一直激励着该校师生奋发好学。

The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster.