My father would invite me sweetly to come and sit on a stool at his feet, and, as I let myself trustingly down, he would gently kick the seat from under me - and laugh.

- Lincoln Steffens

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

- Lincoln Steffens

I let my boy go and do and say pretty much as he likes, as, and perhaps because, my father kept no string on me.

- Lincoln Steffens

I never heard a Christian sermon preached in a church.

- Lincoln Steffens

Nothing fails like success.

- Lincoln Steffens

The Russian people, sober, are said to be a gentle people.

- Lincoln Steffens

The spirit of graft and of lawlessness is the American spirit.

- 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

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.

- 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

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

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

- Lincoln Steffens

My father required me to honor my father and my mother too much to put up games on them. I did on occasion.

- Lincoln Steffens

My father seemed always to know not only what I was doing, but what I was being.

- Lincoln Steffens

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

- Lincoln Steffens

The doctrine of Jesus is the most revolutionary propaganda that I have ever encountered.

- Lincoln Steffens

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

- Lincoln Steffens

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

- Lincoln Steffens