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Democracy may mean something more than a theoretically absolute popular government, but it assuredly cannot mean anything less.
Herbert Croly
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Herbert Croly
Age: 61 †
Born: 1869
Born: January 23
Died: 1930
Died: May 17
Journalist
Political Scientist
Trade Unionist
Writer
New York City
New York
Herbert David Croly
May
Absolute
Mean
Popular
Something
Democracy
Literature
Less
Assuredly
Cannot
Theoretically
Government
Halloween
Anything
Absolutes
More quotes by Herbert Croly
The adoption by Jefferson and the Republicans of the political structure of their opponents is of an importance hardly inferior to that of the adoption of the Constitution by the states.
Herbert Croly
To the European immigrant - that is, to the aliens who have been converted into Americans by the advantages of American life - the Promise of America has consisted largely in the opportunity which it offered of economic independence and prosperity.
Herbert Croly
The moral and social aspiration proper to American life is, of course, the aspiration vaguely described by the word democratic and the actual achievement of the American nation points towards an adequate and fruitful definition of the democratic ideal.
Herbert Croly
The popular will cannot be taken for granted, it must be created.
Herbert Croly
The essential nature of a democracy compels it to insist that individual power of all kinds, political, economic, or intellectual, shall not be perversely and irresponsibly exercised.
Herbert Croly
The interest which lay behind Federalism was that of well-to-do citizens in a stable political and social order, and this interest aroused them to favor and to seek some form of political organization which was capable of protecting their property and promoting its interest.
Herbert Croly
Had it not been for the Atlantic Ocean and the virgin wilderness, the United States would never have been the Land of Promise.
Herbert Croly
In Jefferson's mind democracy was tantamount to extreme individualism.
Herbert Croly
Unless the great majority of Americans not only have, but believe they have, a fair chance, the better American future will be dangerously compromised.
Herbert Croly
The higher American patriotism, on the other hand, combines loyalty to historical tradition and precedent with the imaginative projection of an ideal national Promise.
Herbert Croly
The more consciously democratic Americans became, however, the less they were satisfied with a conception of the Promised Land, which went no farther than a pervasive economic prosperity guaranteed by free institutions.
Herbert Croly
I am not concerned with dodging the odium of the word. The proposed definition of democracy is socialistic . . . (democracy) should be characterized not so much socialistic, as unscrupulously and loyally nationalistic.
Herbert Croly
If it be true that democracy is based upon the assumption that every man shall serve his fellow man, the organization of democracy should be gradually adapted to that assumption.
Herbert Croly
The American economic, political, and social organization has given to its citizens the benefits of material prosperity, political liberty, and a wholesome natural equality and this achievement is a gain, not only to Americans, but to the world and to civilization.
Herbert Croly
Women ... are completely alone, though they were born and bred upon this soil, as if they belonged to another class in creation.
Herbert Croly
The Constitution was the expression not only of a political faith, but also of political fears. It was wrought both as the organ of the national interest and as the bulwark of certain individual and local rights.
Herbert Croly
I am not a prophet in any sense of the word, and I entertain an active and intense dislike of the foregoing mixture of optimism, fatalism, and conservatism.
Herbert Croly
Of course, Americans have no monopoly of patriotic enthusiasm and good faith.
Herbert Croly
Let it be immediately added, however, that this economic independence and prosperity has always been absolutely associated in the American mind with free political institutions.
Herbert Croly
The combination of Federalism and Republicanism which formed the substance of the system, did not constitute a progressive and formative political principle, but it pointed in the direction of a constructive formula.
Herbert Croly
