Irving Babbitt Quotes & Sayings (Page 3)

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

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

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

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