babbitt Quotes

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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.”