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

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
Causes
Evil
Men
World
Wickedness
Privilege

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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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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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The only thing worth having in an earthly existence is a sense of humor.
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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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Revolt is not reform, and one revolutionary administration is not good government.
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It is possible to get an education at a university. It has been done not often.
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Chicago will give you a chance. The sporting spirit is the spirit of Chicago.
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The spirit of graft and of lawlessness is the American spirit.
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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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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.
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Power is what men seek, and any group that gets it will abuse it. It is the same story.
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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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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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My father seemed always to know not only what I was doing, but what I was being.
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The doctrine of Jesus is the most revolutionary propaganda that I have ever encountered.
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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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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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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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