If the only requirement for knighthood in olden days had been a signature on an application form, even the cowards would have signed on! An élite's sole claim to be so-called lies in the service it renders. Its members cannot be arbitrarily chosen or designated in advance. It is by the quality of the work done that a workman's value can be known.
There has never been any shortage of sage counsellors whose expertise in talking is equalled only by their utter incapacity when it comes to deeds. An élite, by contrast, is recognized not by its words, but by its application, its prudence and its effectiveness in action.
Although theoretical training is necessary, it is just as indispensable to make the best possible utilization of the conditions and types of action that will enable those worthy to belong to such élites to show their mettle.
It would be useless to expect any worthwhile achievement from your brilliant thinkers and talkers who are careful to stay on the plane of theory and not to soil their hands with any of the practical hard work. Such men, forever surprised that any progress could possibly be made without calling on their aid, would only be satisfied if the solid achievements of others were placed under the abstract and dilettante direction of their own experience.
* Reprinted from Action: A Manual for the Reconstruction of Christendom by Jean Ousset, IHS Press, 2002, pg. 237-238
