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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.

Lincoln Steffens

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Lincoln Steffens
Age: 70 †
Born: 1866
Born: April 6
Died: 1936
Died: August 9
Autobiographer
Journalist
San Francisco County
California
Lincoln Austin Steffens
Theory
Knowledge
Axioms
Forget
Theories
Better
Absolutes
Believe
Absolute
Educated
Atheism
Harder

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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.
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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.
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My father seemed always to know not only what I was doing, but what I was being.
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Chicago will give you a chance. The sporting spirit is the spirit of Chicago.
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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.
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The only thing worth having in an earthly existence is a sense of humor.
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My father was slower, but he was severer than my mother, who was quick but light and irregular in discipline.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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My father required me to honor my father and my mother too much to put up games on them. I did on occasion.
Lincoln Steffens
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It is our knowledge - the things we are sure of - that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning.
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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.
Lincoln Steffens
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It is possible to get an education at a university. It has been done not often.
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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.
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So youve been over into Russia? said Bernard Baruch, and I answered very literally, I have been over into the future and it works.
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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.
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