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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.

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
United
Establish
Father
Suspects
States
Fathers
Government
Republic
Enough
Wrote
Sacred
Democratic
Hunted
Constitution
Suspect

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The spirit of graft and of lawlessness is the American spirit.
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It is privilege that causes evil in the world, not wickedness, and not men.
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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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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 required me to honor my father and my mother too much to put up games on them. I did on occasion.
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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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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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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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The doctrine of Jesus is the most revolutionary propaganda that I have ever encountered.
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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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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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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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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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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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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.
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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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I have been contending all my life, and always with God.
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