"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."
"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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Source: Lincoln Steffens (1931). “The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens”, p.816, Heyday
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More quotes by Lincoln Steffens
"Nothing is done. Everything in the world remains to be done or done over. The greatest picture is not yet painted, the greatest play isn't written, the greatest poem is unsung. There isn't in all the world a perfect railroad, nor a good government, nor a sound law. Physics, mathematics, and especially the most advanced and exact of the sciences are being fundamentally revised. . . Psychology, economics, and sociology are awaiting a Darwin, whose work in turn is awaiting an Einstein."
"Keep your baby eyes (which are the eyes of genius) on what we don't know"
"The misgovernment of the American people is misgovernment by the American people."
"Power is what men seek, and any group that gets it will abuse it. It is the same story."
"Morality is only moral when it is voluntary."