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When the element of conversion with reference to a standard is eliminated from life, what remains is the irresponsible quest for thrills.

— Irving Babbitt Democracy and Leadership (1924)

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More quotes by Irving Babbitt

True democracy consists not in lowering the standard but in giving everybody, so far as possible, a chance of measuring up to the standard.

English and the Discipline of Ideas (1920)

To glorify man in his natural and unmodified self is no less surely, even if less obviously, idolatry than actually to bow down before a graven image.

English and the Discipline of Ideas (1920)

Our most urgent problem just now is how to preserve in a positive and critical form the soul of truth in the two great traditions, classical and Christian, that are crumbling as mere dogma.

English and the Discipline of Ideas (1920)

When we consider carefully what many of our so-called humanists stand for, we find that they are not humanists but humanitarians.

English and the Discipline of Ideas (1920)

The true dualism I take to be the contrast between two wills, one of which is felt as vital impulse (élan vital) and the other as vital control (frein vital).

Representative Writings (1981)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Irving Babbitt (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.