Victor Hugo at the Chicago Cultural Center

I punctuate this Victor Hugo quote at the Chicago Cultural Center as (rf. goodreads):

A library implies an act of faith, which generations, still in darkness hid, sign in their night in witness of the dawn.

A history supervisor wrote an explanation:

This is a quote from Victor Hugo's poem, "A Qui La Faute?" from 1872. It means that by collecting books and by collecting knowledge (in a library), people are making an investment that future generations will continue to learn and grow intellectually. The symbolism is that we are all "in the dark" in our own time, but that by recording and storing our knowledge in the safety of a library, future generations will be able to see the light and learn from our mistakes and our experience.

You see, the light of humankind only grows brighter, generation after generation.  It isn't as though we are in darkness now, because we have the benefit of light from our predecessors.  We learn, I hope, from the knowledge, experience and mistakes of the past, just as much as our successors will learn from us in their time.