78 Quotes by Lincoln Steffens

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.

My father was slower, but he was severer than my mother, who was quick but light and irregular in discipline.

You can't control a young horse unless you control yourself.

Care like hell! Sit around the bars and drink, and pose, and pretend, all you want to, but in reality, deep down underneath, care like hell.

Power is what men seek, and any group that gets it will abuse it. It is the same story.

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.

And 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.

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

It is our knowledge - the things we are sure of - that makes the world go wrong and keeps us from seeing and learning.