The South is unique on this continent for having founded and defended a culture which was according to the European principles of culture; and the European principles had better look to the South if they are to be perpetuated in this country(3).
The good life depends on leisure, but leisure depends on an establishment, and the establishment depends on a prevailing magnaminity which scorns personal advancement at the expense of the free activity of the mind(10).
I believe there is possible no deep sense of beauty, no heroism of conduct, and no sublimity of religion, which is not informed by the humble sense of man's precarious position in the universe.
'Progress' and 'Service' are not European slogans, they are Americanisms. We alone have devoted our lives to ideals which are admirable within their proper limits, but which expose us to slavery when pursued without critical intelligence...
His business [that of the Southern gentleman] seemed rather to envelop both his work and his play with a leisure which permitted the activity of intelligence(12).
Industrialism is a program under which men, using the latest scientific paraphernalia, sacrifice comfort, leisure, and the enjoyment of life to win Pyrrhic victories from nature at points of no strategic importance(15).
Is our New World to be dedicated forever to the doctrine of 'Newness'?
-John Crowe Ransom, from the 'Statement of Principles' in the book "I'll Take My Stand"
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