46 Quotes by Irving Babbitt

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

The human mind, if it is to keep its sanity, must maintain the nicest balance between unity and plurality.

Robespierre, however, was not the type of leader finally destined to emerge from the Revolution.

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