Irving Babbitt

Irving Babbitt – Life, Thought, and Memorable Quotes

Explore the life, ideas, influence, and famous quotes of Irving Babbitt (1865–1933), the American literary critic and founder of the New Humanism movement.

Introduction: Who Was Irving Babbitt?

Irving Babbitt (August 2, 1865 – July 15, 1933) was an American academic, literary critic, and cultural thinker, best known as a founder of the New Humanism movement in the early 20th century.

Babbitt’s work aimed to resist certain excesses of modernity—especially what he saw as the dominance of romanticism, sentimentalism, and utilitarianism—and to reassert the importance of moral discipline, classical balance, and the inner life of virtue.

During his lifetime and afterward, Babbitt influenced debates about literature, education, culture, and politics. His critiques of unrestrained feeling, the devaluation of classical humanistic learning, and unchecked democracy resonated especially among conservative intellectuals in the U.S. and beyond.

Early Life and Education

  • Babbitt was born in Dayton, Ohio, to Augusta (Darling) and Edwin Dwight Babbitt.

  • He grew up moving around in childhood; by age 11 he was living in Cincinnati (Madisonville).

  • In 1885 he entered Harvard College, graduating in 1889 with a classical education.

  • After graduating, he taught classics at the College of Montana, then went to France to study at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (affiliated with the Sorbonne), focusing on literature and comparative studies (including Pali and Buddhism) before returning to Harvard for graduate work.

  • Babbitt earned a master’s degree at Harvard (including work in Sanskrit) before pivoting from pure philology to broader literary and moral criticism.

Academic Career & Development of Ideas

Harvard and Comparative Literature

  • In 1894, Babbitt joined Harvard’s faculty as an instructor in French, eventually becoming professor of French literature (in 1912).

  • He is often credited with helping to establish the discipline of comparative literature at Harvard.

  • While he began with a strong grounding in classical, philological, and comparative studies, Babbitt gradually shifted toward moral and cultural criticism—emphasizing the humanistic tradition over technical scholarship.

New Humanism

  • In the 1890s, Babbitt allied himself with Paul Elmer More to define a movement they called New Humanism, sometimes called “the New Humanism of Babbitt and More.”

  • Their core concern was that education, culture, and criticism should cultivate character, moral discrimination, and self-control—not merely technical skills, aesthetic novelty, or sentiment.

  • Babbitt and his circle opposed romanticism (with its emphasis on spontaneity, sentiment, and natural impulse), utilitarianism (with its emphasis on external consequences and measurable utility), and unchecked sentimental humanitarianism.

  • He placed strong emphasis on discipline, self-control, standards, and criticism as mediations between impulse and reason.

Major Works & Critiques

Some of Babbitt’s notable works and contributions include:

WorkDate / ContextSignificance
Literature and the American College1908One of his early major statements on how literature teaching should cultivate moral and intellectual discipline. The New Laokoon1910A work on the relation between art forms and their limits (drawing on classical aesthetic traditions). The Masters of Modern French Criticism1912A critical survey of French critics and the implications for culture. Rousseau and Romanticism1919Critique of Rousseau’s influence as a pivot toward romantic excess. Democracy and Leadership1924His most politically influential work, analyzing democracy, moral character, and leadership. On Being Creative1932Essays exploring the nature of creative work in relation to discipline and virtue.

In Democracy and Leadership, Babbitt criticizes what he sees as the twin dangers of mechanistic utilitarianism (e.g., Francis Bacon) and romantic sentimentalism (e.g., Rousseau), arguing that both undermine moral character and lead to cultural decline.

He defended the role of individual conscience, the importance of moral self-restraint, and the necessity of criticism in maintaining cultural standards.

Ideas, Themes & Legacy

Key Themes

  1. Discipline vs. Impulse
    Babbitt saw human life as mediated by the tension between uncontrollable impulses (desires, passions) and the need for control, restraint, and moral formation.

  2. Standards, Criticism, and Judgment
    For him, culture needed standards against which to judge works and character. Without criticism, everything becomes relativistic.

  3. Resistance to Romanticism & Sentimentalism
    He was a steadfast opponent of the idealization of pure emotion or nature unrestrained. Romanticism’s excesses threatened to degrade moral seriousness.

  4. Education as Moral Formation
    Babbitt believed education should do more than disseminate information—it must form character, cultivate judgment, and maintain continuity with classical humanism.

  5. Democracy and Leadership
    He warned against unchecked majoritarianism and sentimentality in democracy. For him, leadership required moral character, not mere popularity.

Influence & Criticism

  • Babbitt influenced conservative thinkers, including Russell Kirk, who praised Democracy and Leadership as a classic.

  • T. S. Eliot engaged with Babbitt’s ideas; Eliot’s essay The Humanism of Irving Babbitt examines the tensions between Babbitt’s humanistic and Christian perspectives.

  • Critics accused Babbitt of elitism, resisting change, or lacking sympathy for modern experience. Some argued his standards were too rigid for a pluralistic age.

  • After his death, New Humanism declined in popularity as modernist, progressive, and relativist trends gained ascendancy. But interest revived in latter decades among scholars of cultural criticism.

Famous Quotes by Irving Babbitt

Here are some notable quotations attributed to Irving Babbitt that reflect his intellectual style and ideas:

“The industrial revolution has tended to produce everywhere great urban masses that seem to be increasingly careless of ethical standards.”

“An American of the present day reading his Sunday newspaper in a state of lazy collapse is one of the most perfect symbols of the triumph of quantity over quality that the world has yet seen.”

“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.”

“If we are to have such a discipline we must have standards, and to get our standards under existing conditions we must have criticism.”

“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.”

“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 true dualism I take to be the contrast between two wills, one of which is felt as vital impulse … and the other as vital control.”

These quotes illustrate his concern with moral tension, cultural standards, the dangers of unrestrained sentiment, and the necessity of criticism.

Lessons from Irving Babbitt

From Babbitt’s life and works, a few lessons relevant even today might be drawn:

  1. Standards matter
    In a culture of relativism, Babbitt reminds us that without standards, critique and meaning collapse.

  2. Balance impulse with discipline
    Human nature inclines toward spontaneity and excess; wisdom lies in cultivating restraint and self-control.

  3. Education as formation
    Teaching is not just about facts and skills, but about shaping character, judgment, and moral sensibility.

  4. Critique as a civic virtue
    The health of culture depends on critical voices willing to speak against prevailing trends, from within.

  5. Moderation over extremes
    Babbitt’s rejection of both romantic extremes and mechanistic utilitarianism suggests a path of moderation grounded in virtue.

Conclusion

Irving Babbitt (1865–1933) stands as a significant figure in American intellectual history: a defender of moral discipline, classical humanism, and critical judgment in an era of increasing romantic and utilitarian pressures. His New Humanism attempted to revive a culture of character, restraint, and standards amid the transformations of modernity.

While many of his positions remain contested, his insistence on the inner life, criticism, and the interplay between freedom and restraint continues to provoke and inspire. For those interested in literature, culture, or moral philosophy, Babbitt offers a thoughtful counterpoint to simplistic appeals to emotion or progress.

If you wish, I can also offer a top 10 quotations list, or compare Irving Babbitt with another critic you like.

Articles by the author

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.

Irving Babbitt

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.

Irving Babbitt

The industrial revolution has tended to produce everywhere great urban masses that seem to be increasingly careless of ethical standards.

Irving Babbitt

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.

Irving Babbitt

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

Irving Babbitt

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

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

The true humanist maintains a just balance between sympathy and selection.

Irving Babbitt

For behind all imperialism is ultimately the imperialistic individual, just as behind all peace is ultimately the peaceful individual.

Irving Babbitt