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

Teachers ... preach the superiority of the intelligence but they preach it because in their opinion it is the intelligence which shows us the actions required for our interests, i.e. from exactly the same passion for the practical.

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

Peace is only possible if men cease to place their happiness in the possession of things which cannot be shared, and if they raise themselves to a point where they adopt an abstract principle superior to their egotisms. In other words, it can only be obtained by a betterment of human morality.

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

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

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