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Quotation of the Day…

… is from page 305 of Joseph Epstein’s 1999 book, Narcissus Leaves the Pool:

Edward’s [Shils’s] once great respect for intellectuals and academics had dwindled considerably after the 1960s. More and more he tended to think of academics and intellectuals as essentially quacks pushing untested ideas at no personal risk…. He frequently reverted to the Hebrew word chachem, meaning greatly learned wise man or woman, always used sarcastically to refer to the false wise men and women of our day. His list of the false contemporary chachemim would put the lights out in several major universities.

DBx: Indeed so.

Pictured above is Edward Shils (1910-1995).

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