“There is iconoclasm in the excessively intellectual, and they delight in destroying their dearest moral or sentimental idols, the better to prove their strength.”
Source: Cosmopolis (1892), Ch. 4 "Approaching Danger"
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Paul Bourget 44
French writer 1852–1935Related quotes

“Intellectuals are too sentimental for me.”
The Strange Necessity (1969), part 1.

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1960s

Es stände besser um die Welt, wenn die Mühe, die man sich gibt, die subtilsten Moralgesetze auszuklügeln, zur Ausübung der einfachsten angewendet würde.
Source: Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 30.

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 216.
Source: The Romantic Generation (1995), Ch. 3 : Mountains and Song Cycles

“Anyone who delights in praise destroys it.”
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The Meditations of Guigo I, Prior of the Charterhouse
“I am squirming with delight to meet an intellectual colossus.”