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

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More quotes from: Irving Babbitt

• "A democracy, the realistic observer is forced to conclude, is likely to be idealistic in ..."
• "A gross and palpable error of the era that is just closing has been the ..."
• "A man needs to look, not down, but up to standards set so much above ..."
• "A person who has sympathy for mankind in the lump, faith in its future progress, ..."
• "A remarkable feature of the humanitarian movement, on both its sentimental and utilitarian sides, has ..."
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• "Act strenuously, would appear to be our faith, and right thinking will take care of ..."
• "An American of the present day reading his Sunday newspaper in a state of lazy ..."
• "Anyone who rejects the humanitarian theory of brotherhood runs the risk of being accused of ..."
• "Anyone who thus looks up has some chance of becoming worthy to be looked up ..."
• "Cosmopolitan breadth of knowledge and sympathy do not by themselves suffice; to be humanized these ..."
• "Democracy is now going forth on a crusade against imperialism. "
• "For behind all imperialism is ultimately the imperialistic individual, just as behind all peace is ..."
• "For most practical purposes, the law of measure is the supreme law of life, because ..."
• "Furthermore, America suffers not only from a lack of standards, but also not infrequently from ..."
• "If a man went simply by what he saw, he might be tempted to affirm ..."
• "If democracy means simply the attempt to eliminate the qualitative and selective principle in favor ..."
• "If quantitatively the American achievement is impressive, qualitatively it is somewhat less satisfying. "
• "If the American thus regards himself as an idealist at the same time that the ..."
• "In his appearance and behavior, the neo-classicist would be true to the general traits of ..."
• "In theory, Robespierre is, like Rousseau, rigidly egalitarian. "

• "Inasmuch as society cannot go on without discipline of some kind, men were constrained, in ..."
• "One may sum up what appears to be our total trend at present by saying ..."
• "One of our federal judges said, not long ago, that what the American people need ..."
• "One should, therefore, in the interests of democracy itself seek to substitute the doctrine of ..."
• "Perhaps as good a classification as any of the main types is that of the ..."
• "Robespierre, however, was not the type of leader finally destined to emerge from the Revolution. "
• "Since every man desires happiness, it is evidently no small matter whether he conceives of ..."
• "Tell him, on the contrary, that he needs, in the interest of his own happiness, ..."
• "The democratic idealist is prone to make light of the whole question of standards and ..."
• "The firmness of the American's faith in the blessings of education is equaled only by ..."
• "The human mind, if it is to keep its sanity, must maintain the nicest balance ..."
• "The humanist, then, as opposed to the humanitarian, is interested in the perfecting of the ..."
• "The humanitarian lays stress almost solely upon breadth of knowledge and sympathy. "
• "The humanitarian would, of course, have us meddle in foreign affairs as part of his ..."
• "The humanities need to be defended to-day against the encroachments of physical science, as they ..."
• "The industrial revolution has tended to produce everywhere great urban masses that seem to be ..."
• "The man who thus looks up is becoming worthy to be looked up to in ..."
• "The net result of the Rousseauistic movement is thus not to get rid of leadership, ..."
• "The papacy again, representing the traditional unity of European civilization, has also shown itself unable ..."
• "The task of organizing and operating a huge and complex educational machinery has left us ..."

• "The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection. "
• "The ultimate binding element in the medieval order was subordination to the divine will and ..."
• "This comparative indifference to clearness and consistency of thought is visible even in that chief ..."
• "To harmonize the One with the Many, this is indeed a difficult adjustment, perhaps the ..."
• "To say that most of us today are purely expansive is only another way of ..."
• "Very few of the early Italian humanists were really humane. "
• "We may affirm, then, that the main drift of the later Renaissance was away from ..."
• "We must not, however, be like the leaders of the great romantic revolt who, in ..."
• "With the development of inventions like the radio and the wireless telephone, the whole world ..."
• "Yet Aristotle's excellence of substance, so far from being associated with the grand style, is ..."