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Irving Babbitt

Irving Babbitt Quotes

Author

Irving Babbitt was an American scholar and critic known for his profound insights into literature and culture. His works spanned various fields including literary criticism, moral philosophy, and literary theory.

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Famous Irving Babbitt Quotes

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

Love Individual Peace Behinds Peaceful Imperialism

Author:Irving Babbitt

“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.”

Should May Persons Desire Humanity Causes Progress Mankind Humanitarian Humanist Creeds Humanitarianism Lumps Future Progress

Book:Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

Source: Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

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

Seems Produce Revolution Mass Standards Ethical Urban Careless Industrial Revolution Ethical Standards

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

“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.”

Men Needs Feels Looks Self Standards Ordinary Underdog Standards Set

Book:Irving Babbitt, representative writings

Source: Irving Babbitt, representative writings

“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.”

Needs Self Interest Walks Path Humility Contrary Self Control Indifferent Resentful

Author:Irving Babbitt

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

Ifs Mind Humans Balance Unity Human Mind Sanity

Book:Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

Source: Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

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

Stress Lays Humanitarian Sympathy Breadth

Book:Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

Source: Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

“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.”

World States Reading Perfect Quality Newspapers Symbols Triumph Lazy Sunday Quantity Collapse Present Day

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

“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.”

People Whole Light Standards Democratic Idealist

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

“A democracy, the realistic observer is forced to conclude, is likely to be idealistic in its feelings about itself, but imperialistic about its practice.”

Feelings Practice Democracy Realistic Observers Idealistic

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

“If a man went simply by what he saw, he might be tempted to affirm that the essence of democracy is melodrama.”

Ifs Men Might Democracy Saws Essence Tempted Hairstyles Melodrama

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

“If quantitatively the American achievement is impressive, qualitatively it is somewhat less satisfying.”

Ifs Achievement Satisfying Impressive

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

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

Leader Revolution Type Destined

Author:Irving Babbitt

“The humanitarian would, of course, have us meddle in foreign affairs as part of his program of world service.”

World Courses Program Affair Humanitarian Foreign Affairs

Author:Irving Babbitt

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

Balance Humanist Sympathy Selection

Book:Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

Source: Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

“The ultimate binding element in the medieval order was subordination to the divine will and its earthly representatives, notably the pope.”

Order Divine Elements Ultimate Representatives Pope Medieval Binding Subordination Divine Will

Author:Irving Babbitt

“Very few of the early Italian humanists were really humane.”

Book:Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

Source: Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

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

Has Beens Sides Movement Mass Humanitarian Features Remarkable Sentimental Preoccupation Utilitarian

Author: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.”

Needs Today Humanity Needed Theology Physical Science Encroachment Arts And Humanities

Author:Irving Babbitt

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

Civilization Limits Europe Unity Traditional Nationalism Representing

Author:Irving Babbitt

“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.”

Leader Aspiration Conventions Romantic Love Humane Revolt Eagerness Disregarded

Book:Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

Source: Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

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

Men Matter Desire Term Every Man Enjoyment

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

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

Virtue Ethics Sentiments Sentimental Intoxication

Author: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.”

Three Christianity Type Lust Traditional Sensations Distinguished Classification

Author:Irving Babbitt

“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.”

Style Excellence Substance Jargon

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

“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.”

May Sometimes Democracy Including Conservative Quests Tempted Irresponsible Paws Melodrama Commercialism

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

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

Looks Turns Chance Becoming Worthy Look Up

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

“Furthermore, America suffers not only from a lack of standards, but also not infrequently from a confusion or an inversion of standards.”

America Suffering Standards Confusion Inversions

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

“It is well to open one's mind but only as a preliminary to closing it ... for the supreme act of judgment and selection.”

Mind Wells Judgment Supreme Selection Closing

Author:Irving Babbitt

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

Thinking Care Take Care

Book:Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

Source: Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

“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.”

May Degrees Highest Humanism Expansion Renaissance Selective

Book:Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

Source: Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanities

“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.”

Important Nations Difficult Achieve Failure Adjustment

Author:Irving Babbitt

“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.”

Way Today Quality Democracy Concerned Quantity Another Way

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

“Democracy is now going forth on a crusade against imperialism.”

Democracy Imperialism Crusades

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

“If we are to have such a discipline we must have standards, and to get our standards under existing conditions we must have criticism.”

Ifs Conditions Discipline Standards Criticism

Book:On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

Source: On Literature, Cultures, and Religion

“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.”

Men Kind Form Turns Military Type Goes On Discipline Absence Kind Man

Author:Irving Babbitt

About the Author

Born: August 2, 1865
Died: July 15, 1933
Known for: Author
Quotes: 36

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Books & Sources

On Literature, Cultures, and ReligionRelated source material

Literature and the American college: essays in defense of the humanitiesRelated source material

Irving Babbitt, representative writingsRelated source material

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