Lincoln Steffens quotes

The misgovernment of the American people is misgovernment by the American people. (Lincoln Steffens)
Power is what men seek, and any group that gets it will abuse it. It is the same story. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
Art is like a border of flowers along the course of civilization. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
Revolt is not reform, and one revolutionary administration is not good government. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
I have seen the Future, and it works. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
One improvement I have learned from my childhood experience with my father: I do not threaten punishment in the morning. That was awful. Late into the night I would lie awake tossing and wondering what he was going to do to me. Usually he did nothing. A quiet, impressive 'talking to' was all I got. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
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. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
You ask men in office to be honest; I ask them to serve the public. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
Morality is only moral when it is voluntary. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
The spirit of graft and of lawlessness is the American spirit. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
If we would leave parties to the politicians, and would vote not for the party, not even for men, but for the city, and the State, and the nation, we should rule parties, and cities, and States, and nation. (Lincoln Steffens)
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. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
The doctrine of Jesus is the most revolutionary propaganda that I have ever encountered. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
It is possible to get an education at a university. It has been done; not often. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
I never heard a Christian sermon preached in a church. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
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. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
I have been contending all my life, and always with God. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
My father was slower, but he was severer than my mother, who was quick but light and irregular in discipline. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
My father made with me one serious mistake which I see parents about me making. He got himself somehow into the awkward position of an authority; I thought he knew and was right on everything - for a while. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
Chicago will give you a chance. The sporting spirit is the spirit of Chicago. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
My mother would thump me sharply on the head with a thimble or a spoon if I became too noisy with the whistle when I was playing I was a steamboat captain. She had no sense of the dignity of command. (Lincoln Steffens)
I let my boy go and do and say pretty much as he likes, as, and perhaps because, my father kept no string on me. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
I am really puzzled to understand myself. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
We need some great failures. Especially we ever-successful Americans - conscious, intelligent, illuminating failures. View quote
Lincoln Steffens
If my father could watch my son for a while, he might realize his own immortality. View quote
Lincoln Steffens