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

- Ralph Barton Perry

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

- Ralph Barton Perry

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.

- Ralph Barton Perry

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 peace…

- Ralph Barton Perry

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

- Ralph Barton Perry

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…

- Ralph Barton Perry

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 exerci…

- Ralph Barton Perry

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

- Ralph Barton Perry

As a reformer the liberal is dissatisfied with things as they are because they violate his exceptionally tender conscience.... Liberalism does not ad…

- Ralph Barton Perry