The voices / 13 fragments

Lincoln Steffens

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01Undated

An educated mind is nothing but the God-given mind of a child after his parents’ and his grandparents’ generation have got through molding it. We can’t help teaching you; you will ask that of us; but we are prone to teach you what we know, and I am going, now and again, to warn you:Remember we really don’t know anything. Keep your baby eyes (which are the eyes of genius) on what we don’t know. That is your playground, bare and graveled, safe and unbreakable.

Lincoln Steffens / quote

02Undated

morality is moral only when it is voluntary

Lincoln Steffens / quote

03Undated

In all cities, the better classes - the business men - are the sources of corruption, but they are so rarely pursued and caught that we do not fully realize whence the trouble comes.

Lincoln Steffens / quote

04Undated

Power is what men seek and any group that gets it will abuse it.

Lincoln Steffens / quote

05Undated

The commercial spirit is the spirit of profit, not patriotism; of credit, not honor; of individual gain, not national prosperity; of trade and dickering, not principle.

Lincoln Steffens / quote

06Undated

Art is like a border of flowers along the course of civilization.

Lincoln Steffens / quote

07Undated

The typical American citizen is the business man. The typical business man is a bad citizen; he is busy. If he is a 'big business man' and very busy, he does not neglect; he is busy with politics, oh, very busy and very businesslike.

Lincoln Steffens / quote

08Undated

Whenever anything extraordinary is done in American municipal politics, whether for good or for evil, you can trace it almost invariably to one man. The people do not do it. Neither do the 'gangs,' 'combines,' or political parties.

Lincoln Steffens / quote

09Undated

If our political leaders are to be always a lot of political merchants, they will supply any demand we may create. All we have to do is to establish a steady demand for good government.

Lincoln Steffens / quote

10Undated

If we would vote in mass on the more promising ticket, or, if the two are equally bad, would throw out the party that is in, and wait till the next election and then throw out the other party that is in - then, I say, the commercial politician would feel a demand for good government and he would supply it.

Lincoln Steffens / quote

11Undated

The Soviet government sprouted and grew out of the habits, the psychology, and the condition of the Russian people. It fitted them. They understand it.

Lincoln Steffens / quote

12Undated

It is possible to get an education at a university. It has been done not often.

Lincoln Steffens / quote

13Undated

I have been over into the future, and it works.

Lincoln Steffens / quote