Humility and a proper view of one’s work in relation to that of others are recurring themes in The Intellectual Life. Sertillanges exhorts us accept our place in time and seek to serve those around us instead of longing for “the good old days”:
[The spirit of the intellectual life] also excludes a certain archaeological tendency, a love of the past which turns away from present suffering, an esteem for the past which seems not to recognize the universal presence of God. Every age is not as good as every other, but all ages are Christian ages, and there is one which for us, and in practice, surpasses them all: our own. In view of it are our inborn resources, our graces of today and tomorrow, and consequently the efforts that we must make in order to correspond with them. (pg. 15)
And from the beginning of the next paragraph:
