« In the blink of an eye, a century, the one that separates the bicycle chain from the diesel engine, the distances have become indifferent to us, but the slightest delay becomes unbearable. We go global as fast as we become dehistorised; as our networks and highways expanded . . . the chronologies were shrinking. »

« Without making the connection, he discerned in the younger generations of researchers a rather disconcerting turn of mind. They all wanted to be specialists in something, one of the first Barbey of Aurevilly, the other of the last Ernest Renan, and of being recruited as such by the European Studies of Chicago, Tokyo or Melbourne. They seemed to be loath to the big picture, which in their eyes characterized the amateur, even the smoker, let's say the essayist. A true professional was at his niche and stuck to it. He was assigned to a lab and maintained a distanced, competent and passionless relationship with his thesis subject. He recalled a note from Gide: "X is intelligent but he seems to have met ideas rather than extracted them from him." »

« A civilization has won when everything it shapes has become natural and it is wrong to try to reconstruct what actions have allowed such civility to prevail and which system of forces lies below the norm to be respected. »