Quotes from Irving Babbitt

The papacy again, representing the traditional unity of European civilization, has also shown itself unable to limit effectively the push of nationalism.

The industrial revolution has tended to produce everywhere great urban masses that seem to be increasingly careless of ethical standards.

Since every man desires happiness, it is evidently no small matter whether he conceives of happiness in terms of work or of enjoyment.

A remarkable feature of the humanitarian movement, on both its sentimental and utilitarian sides, has been its preoccupation with the lot of the masses.

Anyone who thus looks up has some chance of becoming worthy to be looked up to in turn.

Tell him, on the contrary, that he needs, in the interest of his own happiness, to walk in the path of humility and self-control, and he will be indifferent, or even actively resentful.

For behind all imperialism is ultimately the imperialistic individual, just as behind all peace is ultimately the peaceful individual.

Since every man desires happiness, it is evidently no small matter whether he conceives of happiness in terms of work or of enjoyment.

The humanitarian lays stress almost solely upon breadth of knowledge and sympathy.

Act strenuously, would appear to be our faith, and right thinking will take care of itself.

The democratic idealist is prone to make light of the whole question of standards and leadership because of his unbounded faith in the plain people.

The humanities need to be defended today against the encroachments of physical science, as they once needed to be against the encroachment of theology.

The American reading his Sunday paper in a state of lazy collapse is perhaps the most perfect symbol of the triumph of quantity over quality.... Whole forests are being ground into pulp daily to minister to our triviality.

The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection.

Perhaps as good a classification as any of the main types is that of the three lusts distinguished by traditional Christianity - the lust of knowledge, the lust of sensation, and the lust of power.

A person who has sympathy for mankind in the lump, faith in its future progress, and desire to serve the great cause of this progress, should be called not a humanist, but a humanitarian, and his creed may be designated as humanitarianism.

We must not, however, be like the leaders of the great romantic revolt who, in their eagerness to get rid of the husk of convention, disregarded also the humane aspiration.

Inasmuch as society cannot go on without discipline of some kind, men were constrained, in the absence of any other form of discipline, to turn to discipline of the military type.

To harmonize the One with the Many, this is indeed a difficult adjustment, perhaps the most difficult of all, and so important, withal, that nations have perished from their failure to achieve it.

Equality as it is currently pursued is incompatible with true liberty; for liberty involves an inner working with reference to standards, the right subordination, in other words, of man's ordinary will to a higher will. There is an inevitable clash, in short, between equality and humility.

A man needs to look, not down, but up to standards set so much above his ordinary self as to make him feel that he is himself "spiritually" the underdog. Anyone who thus looks up has some chance of becoming worthy to be looked up to in turn.

According to the new ethics, virtue is not restrictive but expansive, a sentiment and even an intoxication.

To harmonize the One with the Many, this is indeed a difficult adjustment, perhaps the most difficult of all, and so important, withal, that nations have perished from their failure to achieve it.

The democratic idealist is prone to make light of the whole question of standards and leadership because of his unbounded faith in the plain people.