"sneer quotes"; nothing changes

[learnedax]

As he spoke I noticed, what had often struck me before in his conversations... that whenever he spoke of serious matters, whenever he used an expression which seemed to imply a definite opinion upon some important subject, he would take care to isolate, to sterilise it by using a special intonation, mechanical and ironic, as though he had put the phrase or word between inverted commas, and was anxious to disclaim any personal responsibility for it... But then, if it was so absurd, why did he use the word?

- M. Proust regarding M. Swann, a hundred years ago