Julien Benda Quotes

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

“But dogmatism--or the inclination 'to identify the goal of our thinking with the point at which we have become tired of thinking'--is so natural to man that it is not likely to be a preserve of the past. [Citing "Ame," Dictionnaire philosophique, ed. J. Benda, I, 19]”

“Thought flies and words go on foot.”

“True poetry is embarrassing.”

“...a redoubtable alchemy was at work behind impenetrable veils as the forest prepared its nocturnal mysteries.”

“Here we are in the century of information, that is to say the unformed. Every kind of literature will be journalistic, with a science for ballast.”

“A history of literature, unlike history as such, ought to list only victories, for its defeats are no victory for anyone.”

“Blood had long since ceased to beat from one end to the other, but one could sense, from passages marked with fresher traces of wheels and hooves, that once the meaning and even the very idea of a long journey was lost, sleep had not descended over it in one fell swoop: it had continued to steal a march here and there, in a discontinuous way, and over short distances, like a laborer who feels his cart jolt on a section of Roman road that crosses his field...”

“Getting lost is not fatal. Almost every time, it will make your world.”

“Julien felt himself to be strong and resolute like a man who sees clearly into his own heart.”