American - Journalist | April 6, 1866 - August 9, 1936
The longer I live, the more I feel that the individual is not so much to blame - not even the worst individuals, not even the 'best' citizens - as the system of corruption which has grown up about us, and which rewards an honest man with a mere living and a crook with all the magnificence of our magnificent modern life.
Lincoln Steffens
LifeLiveBestManBlameCorruption
Power is what men seek and any group that gets it will abuse it.
PowerMenGroupWillAbuseSeek
The misgovernment of the American people is misgovernment by the American people.
PeopleAmericanAmerican People
Nothing fails like success.
SuccessNothingLikeFails
Revolt is not reform, and one revolutionary administration is not good government.
GoodGovernmentGood Government
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.
GoodGovernmentPoliticalCreateMay
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.
BusinessMenBetterCorruption
Morality is only moral when it is voluntary.
MoralityMoralOnlyVoluntary
I have been over into the future, and it works.
FutureOverBeenWorks
You ask men in office to be honest; I ask them to serve the public.
MenYouAskOfficeHonestServe
My mother would thump me sharply on the head with a thimble or a spoon if I became too noisy with the whistle when I was playing I was a steamboat captain. She had no sense of the dignity of command.
MotherMeDignityNo SenseSheHead
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.
PatriotismHonorCreditProfitTrade
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