The real duty of man is not to extend his power or multiply his wealth beyond his needs, but to enrich and enjoy his imperishable possession: his soul.

He is remembered today for:
An Outline of Homer (1935)
The Classical Tradition: Greek and Roman Influences on Western Literature (1949)
The Art of Teaching (1950)
Man's Unconquerable Mind (1954)
Juvenal the Satirist: A Study (1954)
Poets in a Landscape (1957)
The Anatomy of Satire (1962)
The Immortal Profession: The Joys of Teaching and Learning (1976)
Another solution (1951) one of Highet's few fictional pieces publiGilbert Highetd in Harper's Magazine. "They find one single explanation of the world one system of thought and action that will (they believe) cover everything; and then they try to impose that on all thinking people. "
As a scholar in an era in which democracy communism and fascism vied for supremacy he believed it was the duty of the intellectual to support freedom and defend pluralism.

Gilbert Arthur Highet (June 22 1906 – January 20 1978) was a Scottish-American classicist academic writer intellectual critic and literary historian. See his obituary in The Times January 26 1978. He became an American citizen in 1951 following his appointment as Anthon Professor of Latin Language and Literature in 1950.