Skepticism cannot be revolutionary, even though it speaks the language of revolution.

The intellectual who no longer feels attached to anything is not satisfied with opinion merely; he wants certainty, he wants a system. The revolution provides him with his opium.

Intellectuals cannot tolerate the chance event, the unintelligible: they have a nostalgia for the absolute, for a universally comprehensive scheme.

In a way, all sociologists are akin to Marxists because of their inclination to settle everyone's accounts but their own.

Peace is impossible, war is improbable.

Skepticism cannot be revolutionary, even though it speaks the language of revolution.

What passes for optimism is most often the effect of an intellectual error.