Quotes by Irving Babbitt - Page 1

Very few of the early Italian humanists were really humane.
Irving Babbitt /
Humane
Italian
Copy Quote
Democracy is now going forth on a crusade against imperialism.
Irving Babbitt /
Crusades
Democracy
Imperialism
Crusade
Forth
Copy Quote
The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection.
Irving Babbitt /
Sympathy
Balance
Humanist
Selection
Copy Quote
The humanitarian lays stress almost solely upon breadth of knowledge and sympathy.
Irving Babbitt /
Sympathy
Breadth
Humanitarian
Lays
Stress
Solely
Copy Quote
Anyone who thus looks up has some chance of becoming worthy to be looked up to in turn.
Irving Babbitt /
Chance
Becoming
Looks
Worthy
Looked
Thus
Copy Quote
Act strenuously, would appear to be our faith, and right thinking will take care of itself.
Irving Babbitt /
Care
Take Care
Thinking
Appear
Copy Quote
Robespierre, however, was not the type of leader finally destined to emerge from the Revolution.
Irving Babbitt /
Destined
Leader
Revolution
Type
Emerge
Finally
However
Copy Quote
If quantitatively the American achievement is impressive, qualitatively it is somewhat less satisfying.
Irving Babbitt /
Achievement
Impressive
Satisfying
Somewhat
Copy Quote
The human mind, if it is to keep its sanity, must maintain the nicest balance between unity and plurality.
Irving Babbitt /
Balance
Human Mind
Mind
Sanity
Unity
Nicest
Maintain
Plurality
Copy Quote
According to the new ethics, virtue is not restrictive but expansive, a sentiment and even an intoxication.
Irving Babbitt /
Ethics
Intoxication
Sentimental
Virtue
According
Expansive
Sentiment
Restrictive
Copy Quote
The humanitarian would, of course, have us meddle in foreign affairs as part of his program of world service.
Irving Babbitt /
Affair
Foreign Affairs
Humanitarian
Program
World
Affairs
Meddle
Service
Copy Quote
If a man went simply by what he saw, he might be tempted to affirm that the essence of democracy is melodrama.
Irving Babbitt /
Men
Democracy
Essence
Melodrama
Tempted
Affirm
Copy Quote
It is well to open one's mind but only as a preliminary to closing it ... for the supreme act of judgment and selection.
Irving Babbitt /
Closing
Judgment
Mind
Copy Quote
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 /
Conditions
Criticism
Discipline
Standards
Existing
Copy Quote
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 /
Men
Desire
Enjoyment
Every Man
Matter
Desires
Copy Quote
For behind all imperialism is ultimately the imperialistic individual, just as behind all peace is ultimately the peaceful individual.
Irving Babbitt /
Love
Peace
Imperialism
Individual
Peaceful
Behind
Imperialistic
Ultimately
Copy Quote
Furthermore, America suffers not only from a lack of standards, but also not infrequently from a confusion or an inversion of standards.
Irving Babbitt /
America
Confusion
Standards
Suffering
Furthermore
Inversion
Suffers
Copy Quote
The industrial revolution has tended to produce everywhere great urban masses that seem to be increasingly careless of ethical standards.
Irving Babbitt /
Great
Careless
Ethical
Ethical Standards
Industrial Revolution
Produce
Revolution
Standards
Urban
Everywhere
Increasingly
Industrial
Masses
Seem
Copy Quote
The ultimate binding element in the medieval order was subordination to the divine will and its earthly representatives, notably the pope.
Irving Babbitt /
Binding
Divine
Divine Will
Elements
Medieval
Order
Pope
Representatives
Subordination
Ultimate
Earthly
Element
Copy Quote
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 /
Leadership
Democratic
Idealist
Light
People
Standards
Prone
Plain
Plain People
Unbounded
Copy Quote
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.
Irving Babbitt /
Men
Ordinary
Self
Standards
Standards Set
Underdog
Above
Man Needs
Spiritually
Copy Quote
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 /
Humanity
Needed
Needs
Physical Science
Theology
Today
Defended
Humanities
Physical
Copy Quote
A remarkable feature of the humanitarian movement, on both its sentimental and utilitarian sides, has been its preoccupation with the lot of the masses.
Irving Babbitt /
Movement
Preoccupation
Remarkable
Sentimental
Sides
Utilitarian
Feature
Masses
Copy Quote
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 /
Democracy
Feelings
Idealistic
Practice
Realistic
Conclude
Forced
Imperialistic
Likely
Observer
Copy Quote
The papacy again, representing the traditional unity of European civilization, has also shown itself unable to limit effectively the push of nationalism.
Irving Babbitt /
Civilization
Europe
Nationalism
Representing
Traditional
Unity
Effectively
Limit
Push
Shown
Unable
Copy Quote
Yet Aristotle's excellence of substance, so far from being associated with the grand style, is associated with something that at times comes perilously near jargon.
Irving Babbitt /
Excellence
Jargon
Style
Substance
Associated
Grand
Near
Copy Quote
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 /
Aspiration
Conventions
Disregarded
Eagerness
Humane
Leader
Revolt
Romantic Love
Convention
However
Rid
Copy Quote
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 /
Men
Absence
Discipline
Kind Man
Military
Constrained
Inasmuch
Copy Quote
To say that most of us today are purely expansive is only another way of saying that most of us continue to be more concerned with the quantity than with the quality of our democracy.
Irving Babbitt /
Quality
Another Way
Concerned
Democracy
Today
Expansive
Purely
Copy Quote
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.
Irving Babbitt /
Contrary
Humility
Indifferent
Needs
Path
Resentful
Self
Self Control
Actively
On The Contrary
Copy Quote
An American of the present day reading his Sunday newspaper in a state of lazy collapse is one of the most perfect symbols of the triumph of quantity over quality that the world has yet seen.
Irving Babbitt /
Collapse
Lazy
Perfect
Quantity
Reading
Sunday
Symbols
Triumph
Newspaper
Copy Quote
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 /
Failure
Achieve
Adjustment
Important
Nations
Harmonize
Indeed
Perhaps
Perished
Copy Quote
We may affirm, then, that the main drift of the later Renaissance was away from a humanism that favored a free expansion toward a humanism that was in the highest degree disciplinary and selective.
Irving Babbitt /
Degrees
Expansion
Humanism
Renaissance
Selective
Affirm
Degree
Disciplinary
Drift
Favored
Highest Degree
Main
Toward
Copy Quote
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 /
Christianity
Classification
Distinguished
Lust
Three
Traditional
Main
Sensation
Perhaps
Types
Copy Quote
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.
Irving Babbitt /
Faith
Future
Sympathy
Desire
Humanist
Humanity
Mankind
Progress
Cause
Creed
Lump
Serve
Copy Quote
Commercialism is laying its great greasy paw upon everything including the irresponsible quest of thrills; so that, whatever democracy may be theoretically, one is sometimes tempted to define it practically as standardized and commercialized melodrama.
Irving Babbitt /
Democracy
May
Quests
Copy Quote

Related Authors

Zig Ziglar
Author
Saturday, Nov 06, 1926
Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012
Bob Marley
Singer
Tuesday, Feb 06, 1945
Monday, May 11, 1981
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Poet
Saturday, Aug 05, 1809
Thursday, Oct 06, 1892
Helen Keller
Author
Sunday, Jun 27, 1880
Saturday, Jun 01, 1968
Socrates
Philosopher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Walt Whitman
Poet
Monday, May 31, 1819
Saturday, Mar 26, 1892
John Keats
Poet
Saturday, Oct 31, 1795
Friday, Feb 23, 1821
Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Associate Justice Of The Supreme Court Of The United States
Wednesday, Mar 15, 1933
George Orwell
Novelist
Thursday, Jun 25, 1903
Saturday, Jan 21, 1950
Stephen Covey
Author
Monday, Oct 24, 1932
Monday, Jul 16, 2012
Oscar Wilde
Writer
Monday, Oct 16, 1854
Friday, Nov 30, 1900
Billy Graham
Evangelist
Thursday, Nov 07, 1918
Peter Drucker
Author
Friday, Nov 19, 1909
Friday, Nov 11, 2005
Henry David Thoreau
Author
Saturday, Jul 12, 1817
Tuesday, May 06, 1862
Aldous Huxley
Writer
Thursday, Jul 26, 1894
Friday, Nov 22, 1963

View All Quotes

Top Authors

Michael Jordan
Basketball Player
Sunday, Feb 17, 1963
Napoleon Bonaparte
Military Commander
Tuesday, Aug 15, 1769
Saturday, May 05, 1821
Leonardo Da Vinci
Painter
Thursday, Apr 15, 1452
Friday, May 02, 1519
Jordan Peterson
Psychologist
Napoleon Hill
Author
Friday, Oct 26, 1883
Sunday, Nov 08, 1970
Carl Sagan
Astronomer
Friday, Nov 09, 1934
Friday, Dec 20, 1996
Martin Luther
Monk
Saturday, Nov 10, 1483
Monday, Feb 18, 1546
Khalil Gibran
Poet
Saturday, Jan 06, 1883
Friday, Apr 10, 1931
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Poet
Saturday, Aug 05, 1809
Thursday, Oct 06, 1892
Dr. Seuss
Writer
Wednesday, Mar 02, 1904
Tuesday, Sep 24, 1991
Ernest Hemingway
Author
Friday, Jul 21, 1899
Sunday, Jul 02, 1961
George Bernard Shaw
Playwright
Saturday, Jul 26, 1856
Thursday, Nov 02, 1950
Chanakya
Teacher
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Thursday, Jan 01, 1970
Mae West
Actress
Thursday, Aug 17, 1893
Saturday, Nov 22, 1980
Peter Drucker
Author
Friday, Nov 19, 1909
Friday, Nov 11, 2005

View All Authors

Irving Babbitt Quotes - Page 1

App & Tools

Related Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page

Stay Connected

App & Tools

Related Authors

Popular Topic Tags

Top Authors

Share This Page