"It is well to open one's mind but……" — Irving Babbitt

"It is well to open one's mind but only as a preliminary to closing it ... for the supreme act of judgment and selection."

— Irving Babbitt

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38 Quotes by Irving Babbitt

Irving Babbitt has 38 quotes on this site. A few more worth reading:

For behind all imperialism is ultimately the imperialistic individual, just as behind all peace is ultimately the peaceful individual.
A person who has sympathy for mankind in the lump, faith in its future progress, and desire to serve the…
The industrial revolution has tended to produce everywhere great urban masses that seem to be increasingly careless of ethical standards.
A man needs to look, not down, but up to standards set so much above his ordinary self as to…
Tell him, on the contrary, that he needs, in the interest of his own happiness, to walk in the path…
The human mind, if it is to keep its sanity, must maintain the nicest balance between unity and plurality.
The humanitarian lays stress almost solely upon breadth of knowledge and sympathy.
An American of the present day reading his Sunday newspaper in a state of lazy collapse is one of the…
The democratic idealist is prone to make light of the whole question of standards and leadership because of his unbounded…
A democracy, the realistic observer is forced to conclude, is likely to be idealistic in its feelings about itself, but…
If a man went simply by what he saw, he might be tempted to affirm that the essence of democracy…
If quantitatively the American achievement is impressive, qualitatively it is somewhat less satisfying.

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More Act Quotes

This quote is filed under Act Quotes, one of 8,447 quotes in that category. Here are a few more:

Under conditions of tyranny it is far easier to act than to think. — Hannah Arendt
It is in the very nature of things human that every act that has once made its appearance and has… — Hannah Arendt
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. — Aristotle
Quality is not an act, it is a habit. — Aristotle
Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence,… — Aristotle
Thou wilt find rest from vain fancies if thou doest every act in life as though it were thy last. — Aristotle
Storytelling is fine as long as you can encourage people to act on the stories. — Karen Armstrong
Music is the social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is. — Malcolm Arnold
Criticize the act, not the person. — Mary Kay Ash
We like to engage in a normal publishing effort, which is to act in a responsible manner and make sure… — Julian Assange
Gardening is not a rational act. — Margaret Atwood
All works of art are commissioned in the sense that no artist can create one by a simple act of… — Wystan Hugh Auden

See all 8,447 Act Quotes »