The worst enemy of good government is not our ignorant foreign voter, but our educated domestic railroad president, our prominent business man, our leading lawyer. John Jay Chapman More Quotes by John Jay Chapman More Quotes From John Jay Chapman All progress is experimental. John Jay Chapman progresswork People get so in the habit of worry that if you save them from drowning and put them on a bank to dry in the sun with hot chocolate and muffins they wonder whether they are catching cold. John Jay Chapman worryhappinesspeople If American politics does not look to you like a joke, a tragic dance; if you have enough blindness left in you, on any plea, on any excuse, to vote for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party (for at present machine and party are one), or for any candidate who does not stand for a new era, -- then you yourself pass into the slide of the magic-lantern; you are an exhibit, a quaint product, a curiosity of the American soil. You are part of the problem. John Jay Chapman magicpartycuriosity The world values the seer above all men, and has always done so. Nay, it values all men in proportion as they partake of the character of seers. The Elgin Marbles and a decision of John Marshall are valued for the same reason. What we feel in them is a painstaking submission to facts beyond the author's control, and to ideas imposed on him by his vision. So with Beethoven's Symphonies, with Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations - with any conceivable output of the human mind of which you approve. You love them because you say, These things were not made, they were seen. John Jay Chapman charactermenideas Attack another's rights and you destroy your own. John Jay Chapman libertyrights One of the deepest impulses in man is the impulse to record, - to scratch a drawing on a tusk or keep a diary, to collect sagas and heap cairns. This instinct as to the enduring value of the past is, one might say, the very basis of civilization. John Jay Chapman mencivilizationpast There are plenty of people to whom the crucial problem of their lives never get presented in terms that they can understand. John Jay Chapman societyproblempeople Our goodness comes solely from thinking on goodness; our wickedness from thinking on wickedness. We too are the victims of our own contemplation. John Jay Chapman wickednessvictimthinking Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same - hardihood. Give them raw truth. John Jay Chapman squashhateamerica Too much agreement kills the chat. John Jay Chapman too-muchagreement A magazine or a newspaper is a shop. Each is an experiment and represents a new focus, a new ratio between commerce and intellect. John Jay Chapman ratiosmagazinesfocus It is three and a half hours long, four characters wide and a cesspool deep. John Jay Chapman threecharacterlong I want to find someone on the earth so intelligent that he welcomes opinions which he condemns. John Jay Chapman intelligentearthwant If any of you ... have a mind to make himself heard a mile off, you must make a bonfire of your reputations, and a close enemy of most men who would wish you well. John Jay Chapman mindmenenemy As for boredom ... I notice that it leaves me as soon as I am doing something that has got to be done. John Jay Chapman leaving-meboredomdone Nothing is more injurious to the character and to the intellect than the suppression of a generous emotion. John Jay Chapman emotionhappinesscharacter Politics is organized hatred, that is unity. John Jay Chapman unitypoliticshatred You cannot criticize the New Testament. It criticizes you. John Jay Chapman new-testamentcriticizesociety When a man talks with absolute sincerity and freedom he goes on a voyage of discovery. The whole company has shares in the enterprise. John Jay Chapman goes-ondiscoverymen The men and woman who make the best boon companions seem to have given up hope of doing something else...some defect of talent or opportunity has cut them off from their pet ambition and has thus left them with leisure to take an interest in their lives of others. Your ambition may be, it makes him keep his thoughts at home. But the heartbroken people - if I may use the word in a mild, benevolent sense - the people whose wills are subdued to fate, give us consolation, recognition, and welcome. John Jay Chapman heartbrokenambitionhome
