78 Quotes by Lincoln Steffens

morality is moral only when it is voluntary

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.

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.