Quotes by Lincoln Steffens

About Lincoln Steffens:

Lincoln Joseph Steffens is remembered for investigating corruption in municipal government in American cities and for his early support for the Soviet Union.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

One improvement I have learned from my childhood experience with my father: I do not threaten punishment in the morning. That was awful. Late into the night I would lie awake tossing and wondering what he was going to do to me. Usually he did nothing...

Lincoln Steffens

Boston has carried the practice of hypocrisy to the n-th degree of refinement, grace, and failure.

Lincoln Steffens

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.

Lincoln Steffens

The typical American citizen is the business man. The typical business man is a bad citizen; he is busy. If he is a 'big business man' and very busy, he does not neglect; he is busy with politics, oh, very busy and very businesslike.

Lincoln Steffens

Chicago will give you a chance. The sporting spirit is the spirit of Chicago.

Lincoln Steffens

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.

Lincoln Steffens

It is possible to get an education at a university. It has been done; not often.

Lincoln Steffens

We need some great failures. Especially we ever-successful Americans - conscious, intelligent, illuminating failures.

Lincoln Steffens

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 ...

Lincoln Steffens

Revolt is not reform, and one revolutionary administration is not good government.

Lincoln Steffens

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.

Lincoln Steffens

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.

Lincoln Steffens

I have been over into the future, and it works.

Lincoln Steffens

I have been contending all my life, and always with God.

Lincoln Steffens

Power is what men seek and any group that gets it will abuse it.

Lincoln Steffens

You ask men in office to be honest; I ask them to serve the public.

Lincoln Steffens

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.

Lincoln Steffens

Most men think graft a sporadic evil, breaking out here and there, with no connection between outbreaks. I shared the same opinion, but very soon I discovered that the graft in the cities always leads to the graft in the State.

Lincoln Steffens

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.

Lincoln Steffens

Author Bio

  • NameLincoln Steffens
  • DescriptionAmerican journalist
  • BornApril 6, 1866
  • DiedAugust 9, 1936
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionJournalist; Autobiographer