Lincoln Steffens Quotes

United States, Reporter
April 6, 1866 – August, 9, 1936.

Lincoln Joseph Steffens (April 6, 1866 – August 9, 1936) was a New York reporter who launched a series of articles in McClure's, called Tweed Days in St. Louis, that would later be published together in a book titled The Shame of the Cities. He is remembered for investigating corruption in municipal government in American cities and for his early support for the Soviet Union.

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
- Men
- City
- Party
Chicago will give you a chance. The sporting spirit is the spirit of Chicago.

Lincoln Steffens
- Chicago

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

Lincoln Steffens
- Practice
- Failure
My father was slower, but he was severer than my mother, who was quick but light and irregular in discipline.

Lincoln Steffens
- Mother
- Father
- Light
If my father could watch my son for a while, he might realize his own immortality.

Lincoln Steffens
- Father
- Son
My father, the practical joker, did not care for practical jokes on himself; he did not encourage the practice in me.

Lincoln Steffens
- Father
- Practice
- Joker
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 feel a demand for good government and he would supply it.

Lincoln Steffens
- Good
- Bad
- Party
I never heard a Christian sermon preached in a church.

Lincoln Steffens
- Church
- Christian

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

Lincoln Steffens
- Good
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
- People
- Psychology
It is possible to get an education at a university. It has been done; not often.

Lincoln Steffens
- Done
- Education
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
- Men
- Business
Art is like a border of flowers along the course of civilization.

Lincoln Steffens
- Art
I have been contending all my life, and always with God.

Lincoln Steffens
- Life
- God