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. (Irving Babbitt)
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. (Irving Babbitt)
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. (Irving Babbitt)
The humanitarian lays stress almost solely upon breadth of knowledge and sympathy. (Irving Babbitt)
If quantitatively the American achievement is impressive, qualitatively it is somewhat less satisfying. (Irving Babbitt)
If we are to have such a discipline we must have standards, and to get our standards under existing conditions we must have criticism. (Irving Babbitt)
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. (Irving Babbitt)
A gross and palpable error of the era that is just closing has been the confusion of mechanical and material progress with moral progress. (Irving Babbitt)
The humanities need to be defended today against the encroachments of physical science, as they once needed to be against the encroachment of theology. (Irving Babbitt)
Since every man desires happiness, it is evidently no small matter whether he conceives of happiness in terms of work or of enjoyment. (Irving Babbitt)
One of our federal judges said, not long ago, that what the American people need is ten per cent of thought and ninety per cent of action. (Irving Babbitt)
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. (Irving Babbitt)
A democracy, the realistic observer is forced to conclude, is likely to be idealistic in its feelings about itself, but imperialistic about its practice. (Irving Babbitt)
According to the new ethics, virtue is not restrictive but expansive, a sentiment and even an intoxication. (Irving Babbitt)
The human mind, if it is to keep its sanity, must maintain the nicest balance between unity and plurality. (Irving Babbitt)