Julien Benda

Peace is only possible if men cease to place their happiness in the possession of things "which cannot be shared," and if…

— Julien Benda

Philosophy, which formerly raised man to feel conscious of himself because he was a thinking being and to say, 'I think therefore…

— Julien Benda

And History will smile to think that this is the species for which Socrates and Jesus Christ died.

— Julien Benda

Nothing seems to me more doubtful than Aristotle's remark that it is probable the arts and philosophy have several times been discovered…

— Julien Benda

It may be said that modern Europe with teachers who inform it that its realist instincts are beautiful, acts ill and honors…

— Julien Benda

Peace is only possible if men cease to place their happiness in the possession of things which cannot be shared.

— Julien Benda

Christianity exhorted man to set himself up against Nature, but did so in the name of his spiritual and disinterested attributes. Pragmatism…

— Julien Benda

The modern moralists extol ... the cult of practical activity in defiance of the disinterested life.

— Julien Benda

The man of science, the artist, the philosopher are attached to their nations as much as the day-laborer and the merchant.

— Julien Benda

I shall go further and say that even if an examination of the past could lead to any valid prediction concerning man's…

— Julien Benda

The true clerc is Vauvenargues, Lamarck, Fresnel, Spinoza, Schiller, Baudelaire, César Franck, who were never diverted from single-hearted adoration of the beautiful…

— Julien Benda

Since the Greeks the predominant attitude of thinkers towards intellectual activity was to glorify it insofar as (like aesthetic activity) it finds…

— Julien Benda

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

— Julien Benda

All Europe, including Erasmus, has followed Luther.

— Julien Benda

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

— Julien Benda

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

— Julien Benda

Formerly, leaders of states practiced realism, but did not honor it. With them morality was violated, but moral notions remained intact. The…

— Julien Benda

Teachers ... preach "the superiority of the intelligence"; but they preach it because in their opinion it is the intelligence which shows…

— Julien Benda