Lincoln Steffens Quotations

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

Revolt is not reform, and one revolutionary administration is not good government.

The misgovernment of the American people is misgovernment by the American people.

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

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.

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.

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

Boston has carried the practice of hypocrisy to the n-th degree of refinement, grace, and failure.

Morality is only moral when it is voluntary.

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.

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.

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.

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.

You ask men in office to be honest; I ask them to serve the public.

If my father could watch my son for a while, he might realize his own immortality.

My father, the practical joker, did not care for practical jokes on himself; he did not encourage the practice in me.

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.

Chicago will give you a chance. The sporting spirit is the spirit of Chicago.

The Russian people, sober, are said to be a gentle people.

The spirit of graft and of lawlessness is the American spirit.

I have been contending all my life, and always with God.

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.

I never heard a Christian sermon preached in a church.

Morality is moral only when it is voluntary.

Most men think graft a sporadic evil, breaking out here and there, with no connection between outbreaks. I shared the same opinion, but very soon I discovered that the graft in the cities always leads to the graft in the State.

Somebody must take a chance. The monkeys who became men, and the monkeys who didn't are still jumping around in trees making faces at the monkeys who did.

So you've been over into Russia?" said Bernard Baruch, and I answered very literally, "I have been over into the future and it works

The unknown is the province of the student; it is the field for his life's adventure, and it is a wide field full of beckonings

I have seen the future; and it works. (Following a visit to the Soviet Union in 1919)

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.

The longer I live, the more I feel that the individual is not so much to blame - not even the worst individuals, not even the 'best' citizens - as the system of corruption which has grown up about us, and which rewards an honest man with a mere living and a crook with all the magnificence of our magnificent modern life.

I hunted far enough to suspect that the Fathers of the Republic who wrote our Sacred Constitution of the United States not only did not, but did not want to, establish a democratic government.

I am really puzzled to understand myself.

The best picture has not yet been painted; the greatest poem is still unsung; the mightiest novel remains to be written; the divinest music has not been conceived, even by Bach. In science, probably ninety-nine percent of the knowable has not yet been discovered.

My summary of all our experiences was that it showed that heaven and hell are one place, and we all go there. To those who are prepared, it is heaven; to those who are not fit and ready, it is hell.

My father would invite me sweetly to come and sit on a stool at his feet, and, as I let myself trustingly down, he would gently kick the seat from under me - and laugh.

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.

In science, probably ninety-nine percent of the knowable has to be discovered. We know only a few streaks about astronomy. We are only beginning to imagine the force and composition of the atom. Physics has not yet found any indivisible matter, or psychology a sensible soul.

My father required me to honor my father and my mother too much to put up games on them. I did on occasion.

My father seemed always to know not only what I was doing, but what I was being.

It is privilege that causes evil in the world, not wickedness, and not men.

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.

We need some great failures. Especially we ever-successful Americans - conscious, intelligent, illuminating failures.

Why is it that the less intelligence people have, the more spiritual they are? They seem to fill all the vacant, ignorant spaces in their heads with soul. Which explains how it is that the less knowledge they have, the more religion.

My father was slower, but he was severer than my mother, who was quick but light and irregular in discipline.

You can't control a young horse unless you control yourself.

Care like hell! Sit around the bars and drink, and pose, and pretend, all you want to, but in reality, deep down underneath, care like hell.

Power is what men seek, and any group that gets it will abuse it. It is the same story.

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.

And 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.

The unknown is the province of the student; it is the field for his lifes adventure, and it is a wide field full of beckonings

It is our knowledge - the things we are sure of - that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning.

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

Somebody must take a chance. There are monkeys who became men, and the monkeys who didn't are still jumping around in trees making faces at the monkeys who did.

The doctrine of Jesus is the most revolutionary propaganda that I have ever encountered.

So youve been over into Russia? said Bernard Baruch, and I answered very literally, I have been over into the future and it works.

The politer the society, the greater the lies it requires.

First in violence, deepest in dirt, lawless, unlovely, ill-smelling, irreverent, new; an overgrown gawk of a - village, the "tough" among cities, a spectacle for the nation.

We know that there is no absolute knowledge, that there are only theories; but we forget this. The better educated we are, the harder we believe in axioms.

I have seen the future, and it works.

The only thing worth having in an earthly existence is a sense of humor.

Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over.

Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over. The greatest picture is not yet painted, the greatest play isn't written, the greatest poem is unsung. There isn't in all the world a perfect railroad, nor a good government, nor a sound law. Physics, mathematics, and especially the most advanced and exact of the sciences are being fundamentally revised. . . Psychology, economics, and sociology are awaiting a Darwin, whose work in turn is awaiting an Einstein.

Keep your baby eyes (which are the eyes of genius) on what we don't know