Quotes by Julien Benda - Page 1

All Europe, including Erasmus, has followed Luther.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Including
Luther
Followed
Copy Quote
Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on the fear of war but on the love of peace.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Love
Peace
War
Love War Peace
Exists
Copy Quote
And History will smile to think that this is the species for which Socrates and Jesus Christ died.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Happiness
Jesus
Smile
Christ
Died
Jesus Christ
Laughter
Species
Copy Quote
The modern moralists extol ... the cult of practical activity in defiance of the disinterested life.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Cult
Defiance
Modern
Copy Quote
Peace is only possible if men cease to place their happiness in the possession of things which cannot be shared.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Men
Military
Possession
Copy Quote
The man of science, the artist, the philosopher are attached to their nations as much as the day-laborer and the merchant.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Men
Artist
Nations
Philosopher
Attached
Merchant
Copy Quote
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.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Teacher
Beautiful
Europe
Ill
Realist
Acts
Teachers
Instincts
Honors
Inform
Copy Quote
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 / Philosopher
Contempt
Modern
Romanticism
Copy Quote
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.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Art
Doubtful
Lost
Philosophy
Probable
Remark
Several
Copy Quote
I shall go further and say that even if an examination of the past could lead to any valid prediction concerning man's future, that prediction would be the contrary of reassuring.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Men
Contrary
Examination
Past
Reassuring
Would Be
Future Man Past
Concerning
Further
Prediction
Valid
Copy Quote
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.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Teacher
Action
Passion
Copy Quote
Peace, if it ever exists, will not be based on the fear of war, but on the love of peace. It will not be the abstaining from an act, but the coming of a state of mind. In this sense the most insignificant writer can serve peace, where the most powerful tribunals can do nothing.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
War
Mind
Powerful
Copy Quote
Formerly, leaders of states practiced realism, but did not honor it. With them morality was violated, but moral notions remained intact. The modern governor, owing to the fact that he addresses crowds, is compelled to be a moralist, and to present his acts as bound up with a system of morality.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Crowds
Honor
Leader
Copy Quote
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.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Men
Morality
Principles
Copy Quote
Philosophy, which formerly raised man to feel conscious of himself because he was a thinking being and to say, 'I think therefore I am," now raises him to say ... "I think, therefore I am not," (unless he takes thought into consideration only in that humble region where it is confused with action).
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Confused
Humble
Philosophy
Copy Quote
The true clerc is Vauvenargues, Lamarck, Fresnel, Spinoza, Schiller, Baudelaire, César Franck, who were never diverted from single-hearted adoration of the beautiful and the divine by the necessity of earning their daily bread. But such clercs are inevitably rare. The rule is that the living creature condemned to struggle for life turns to practical passions, and thence to the sanctifying of those passions.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Beautiful
Passion
Struggle
Copy Quote
Christianity exhorted man to set himself up against Nature, but did so in the name of his spiritual and disinterested attributes. Pragmatism exhorts him to do so in the name of his practical attributes. Formerly man was divine because he had been able to acquire the concept of justice, the idea of law, the sense of God; today he is divine because he has been able to create equipment which makes him the master of matter.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Men
Law
Spiritual
Copy Quote
Since the Greeks the predominant attitude of thinkers towards intellectual activity was to glorify it insofar as (like aesthetic activity) it finds its satisfaction in itself, apart from any attention to the advantages it may procure. Most thinkers would have agreed with Renan's verdict that the man who loves science for its fruits commits the worst of blasphemies against that divinity. The modern clercs have violently torn up this charter. They proclaim the intellectual functions are only respectable to the extent that they are bound up with the pursuit of concrete advantage.
Julien Benda / Philosopher
Attitude
Men
Greek
Copy Quote

Related Philosopher Authors

Soren Kierkegaard
Philosopher
Wednesday, May 05, 1813
Sunday, Nov 11, 1855
Socrates
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Plato
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Philosopher
John Locke
Philosopher
Sunday, Aug 29, 1632
Tuesday, Oct 28, 1704
Zicheng Hong
Philosopher
Zhuangzi
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Zhang Zai
Philosopher
Zeno Of Elea
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Zengzi
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Zechariah Chafee
Philosopher
Monday, Dec 07, 1885
Friday, Feb 08, 1957
Yasuhiko Kimura
Philosopher
Yamaga Soko
Philosopher
Wednesday, Sep 21, 1622
Tuesday, Oct 23, 1685
Yajnavalkya
Philosopher
Xunzi
Philosopher

View All Philosopher Quotes

Top Authors

Ernest Hemingway
Author
Friday, Jul 21, 1899
Sunday, Jul 02, 1961
John Keats
Poet
Saturday, Oct 31, 1795
Friday, Feb 23, 1821
Dwight D. Eisenhower
34Th U.s. President
Tuesday, Oct 14, 1890
Friday, Mar 28, 1969
Julius Caesar
Roman Dictator
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Writer
Thursday, Aug 28, 1749
Thursday, Mar 22, 1832
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Civil Rights Activist
Tuesday, Jan 15, 1929
Thursday, Apr 04, 1968
Pope Francis
Thursday, Dec 17, 1936
H. L. Mencken
Journalist
Sunday, Sep 12, 1880
Sunday, Jan 29, 1956
Carl Sagan
Astronomer
Friday, Nov 09, 1934
Friday, Dec 20, 1996
John Lewis
U.s. Representative
Wednesday, Feb 21, 1940
Bob Marley
Singer
Tuesday, Feb 06, 1945
Monday, May 11, 1981
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Poet
Wednesday, Oct 21, 1772
Friday, Jul 25, 1834
George Bernard Shaw
Playwright
Saturday, Jul 26, 1856
Thursday, Nov 02, 1950
Henry Ford
Industrialist
Thursday, Jul 30, 1863
Monday, Apr 07, 1947
Charles Spurgeon
Preacher
Thursday, Jun 19, 1834
Sunday, Jan 31, 1892

View All Authors

Julien Benda Quotes - Page 1

App & Tools

Related Philosopher Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page

Stay Connected

App & Tools

Related Philosopher Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page