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The optimism of the Left was created and maintained by a strong feeling: admiration for the power of reason, certainty that the application of science to industry would revolutionise the order of human society and the condition of its individual members. The ancestral aspiration towards human brotherhood was united with faith in practical science in order to inspire either nationalism or socialism or both.

— Raymond Aron The Opium of Intellectuals (1955)

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More quotes by Raymond Aron

The intellectual ... must try never to forget the arguments of the adversary, or the uncertainty of the future, or the faults of one’s own side, or the underlying fraternity of ordinary men everywhere.

The Opium of Intellectuals (1955)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Raymond Aron (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.