First in violence, deepest in dirt, lawless, unlovely, ill-smelling, irreverent, new; an overgrown gawk of a - village, the "tough" among cities, a spectacle for the nation.
Lincoln SteffensRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests that corruption is interconnected across different levels of government.
Lincoln Steffens highlights his initial belief that corruption is a random occurrence, but through observation, he realizes that corruption in cities is inevitably linked to corruption at the state level. This insight implies that tackling graft requires understanding its systemic nature rather than viewing it as isolated incidents.
Themes
CorruptionGraftGovernmentPoliticsSystemic
In practice
Example use cases
During a political debate, one might quote this to illustrate the pervasive nature of corruption in governance.
More from Lincoln Steffens
All quotes →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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