Antonio Gramsci

A proletarian, no matter how intelligent he may be, no matter how fit to become a man of culture, is forced either [1.] to squander his qualities on some other activity, or else [2.] to become a rebel and autodidact - i.e. (apart from some notable exceptions) a mediocrity, a man who cannot give all he could have given had he been completed and strengthened by the discipline of school. Culture is a privilege. Education is a privilege. And we do not want it to be so. All young people should be equal before culture. Using the funds of all citizens, the State should not be financing the education of the children of wealthy parents no matter how mediocre or deficient they may be, while it excludes even the most intelligent and capable children of proletarians. Grammar-school and higher education should be open only to those who can demonstrate that they are worthy of it

Of course, meanly bourgeois industrialists might prefer to have workers who were more machines than men. But the sacrifices which everyone in society willingly makes in order to foster improvements and nourish the best and most perfect men who will improve it still more - these sacrifices must bring benefits to the whole of society, not just to one category of people or one class. It is a problem of right and of force. The proletariat must stay alert, to prevent another abuse being added to the many it has already suffered. 

What are the "maximum" limits of acceptance of the term "intellectual"?

The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned.

Driving forward is the chief characteristic of western man since the Sumerians. His dread triad of vices is property-holding, voraciousness, and lust.