Ralph Barton Perry Quotes

A man can do his best only by confidently seeking (and perpetually missing) an unattainable perfection.

Ignorance deprives people of freedom because they do not know what alternatives there are. It is impossible to choose to do what one has never "heard of."

As a reformer the liberal is dissatisfied with things as they are because they violate his exceptionally tender conscience.... Liberalism does not advocate change for its own sake, but for the sake of something better in the direction of what he regards as good, namely, the maximum of liberty consistent with a regard for all men and all interests -- the general happiness based on peace and justice.

I prefer credulity to skepticism and cynicism for there is more promise in almost anything than in nothing at all.

If patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, it is not merely because evil deeds may be performed in the name of patriotism, but because patriotic fervor can obliterate moral distinctions altogether.

The fundamental idea of modern capitalism is not the right of the individual to possess and enjoy what he has earned, but the ;thesis that the exercise of this right redounds to the general good.

Voting is the least arduous of a citizen's duties. He has the prior and harder duty of making up his mind.

Indeed I am inclined to go so far as to say that the one cause for which one may properly make war is the cause of peace.

What is needed in the present plight of mankind is not more science but a change of heart that shall move mankind to devote to constructive and peaceful purposes.

The English mind is intelligent rather than intellectual. The French are intellectual in the sense that the intellect is emancipated and left free to run its own course.

Humanitarianism needs no apology, even when its objects are Russians or Communists. Unless we recover that concern and feel it toward all men without exception, including those who are on the other side in every fratricidal dispute, we shall have lost the chief redeeming force in human history.

This insistence on "having his say upon the universe" is the profoundest motive of William James thinking as well as of his filial gratitude.