“From his loftiest pulpit the modern clerc assures man that he is great in proportion as he is practical.”

—  Julien Benda

Source: Treason of the Intellectuals (1927), p. 150

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Julien Benda photo
Julien Benda 19
French essayist 1867–1956

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“One of the principle causes is that the modern world has made the clerc into a citizen, subject to all the responsibilities of a citizen, and consequently to despise lay passions is far more difficult for him than for his predecessors.”

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Source: Treason of the Intellectuals (1927), p. 158

“The modern clercs have created in so-called cultivated society a positive romanticism of harshness. The have also created a romanticism of contempt.”

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