Julien Benda

“To say that the 'clerk's' treason dates from yesterday would be ridiculous.”

“The great betrayal, in my view, is the affirmation of the supreme value of the particular.”

“Our age is indeed the age of the intellectual organization of political hatreds.”

“Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on the fear of war, but on the love of peace.”

“The man of letters who has always been supposed to be the guardian of abstract truth, has betrayed this office for the advantage of a nation or a class.”

“The 'clerk' who is a specialist in a certain scientific domain, but who is entirely devoid of any curiosity as to what is going on in neighbouring domains... represents a type of mind which is new in history.”

“The modern 'clerk' has transformed his country into a god, and this deification of the political is one of the most surprising characteristics of our time.”

“The desire to be 'of one's time' is the modern form of worldly ambition.”

“The true 'clerk' is he who sides with the eternal and the universal.”

“The intellectual is a person who has found something more interesting than sex.”

“Hence we have the man of learning who is a violent nationalist and the man of letters who is a violent nationalist.”