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.

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.

Act strenuously, would appear to be our faith, and right thinking will take care of itself.

Furthermore, America suffers not only from a lack of standards, but also not infrequently from a confusion or an inversion of standards.

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.

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

The humanities need to be defended today against the encroachments of physical science, as they once needed to be against the encroachment of theology.