The American reading his Sunday paper in a state of lazy collapse is perhaps the most perfect symbol of the triumph of quantity over quality…. Whole forests are being ground into pulp daily to minister to our triviality. – Irving Babbitt
Act strenuously, would appear to be our faith, and right thinking will take care of itself. – 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. – 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. – Irving Babbitt