" This easily explains a fact we have frequently noted concerning people described as ‘cultured’. The ordinary meaning of this word is well-known; it does not even refer to an ever so insubstantial knowledge, no matter how limited and inferior its scope, but to a superficial smattering of all sorts of things, to an education that is above all ‘literary’ and in any case purely bookish and verbal, one that allows its possessor to speak with assurance about everything, even including what he is most ignorant of, and is liable to deceive those who are easily taken in by such brilliant veneers and who fail to see that what lies behind them is nothing at all. "

― René Guénon , Perspectives on Initiation