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.
Interpretation
The quote critiques modern society's preference for superficial abundance over meaningful substance.
Irving Babbitt highlights a societal trend where people prioritize the quantity of information and entertainment, represented by a person lazily reading a Sunday newspaper, over the quality of thought and experience. This reflects a cultural shift toward valuing superficial abundance, suggesting a loss of deeper engagement with life and ideas.
In practice
This quote could be shared in a discussion about consumerism and its effects on culture.
Commercialism is laying its great greasy paw upon everything including the irresponsible quest of thrills; so that, whatever democracy may be theoretically, one is sometimes tempted to define it practically as standardized and commercialized melodrama.
Did it matter then, she asked herself, walking towards Bond Street, did it matter that she must inevitably cease completely? All this must go on without her; did she resent it; or did it not become consoling to believe that death ended absolutely?
We fall from womb to tomb, from one blackness and toward another, remembering little of the one and knowing nothing of the other ... except through faith.
Magical places are always beautiful and deserve to be contemplated ... Always stay on the bridge between the invisible and the visible.
The world is a wonderfully weird place, consensual reality is significantly flawed, no institution can be trusted, certainty is a mirage, security a delusion, and the tyranny of the dull mind forever threatens -- but our lives are not as limited as we think they are, all things are possible, laughter is holier than piety, freedom is sweeter than fame, and in the end it's love and love alone that really matters.
The human heart is a factory of idols...Everyon e of us is, from his mother's womb, expert in inventing idols.
Regarded zoologically, man is today an almost isolated figure in nature. In his cradle, he was less isolated.
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