#t

If a man went simply by what he saw, he might be tempted to affirm that the essence of democracy is melodrama. ↗

— Irving Babbitt

#democracy #essence #man #melodrama #might

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. ↗

— Irving Babbitt

#aspiration #convention #disregarded #eagerness #get

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. ↗

— Irving Babbitt

#any #cannot #constrained #discipline #form

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

— Irving Babbitt

#emerge #finally #however #leader #revolution

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. ↗

— Irving Babbitt

#democratic #faith #his #idealist #leadership

The country is provincial; it becomes ridiculous when it tries to ape Paris. ↗

— Honore de Balzac

#becomes #country #paris #provincial #ridiculous

In his state of complete powerlessness the individual perceives the time he has left to live as a brief reprieve. ↗

— Theodor Adorno

#complete #his #individual #left #live

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

— Irving Babbitt

#divine #earthly #element #medieval #notably

To say that most of us today are purely expansive is only another way of saying that most of us continue to be more concerned with the quantity than with the quality of our democracy. ↗

— Irving Babbitt

#another way #concerned #continue #democracy #expansive

Very few of the early Italian humanists were really humane. ↗

— Irving Babbitt

#few #humane #humanists #italian #really