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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 Practical Agitation (1900)

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Politics

More quotes by John Jay Chapman

Every generation is a secret society and has incommunicable enthusiasms, tastes and interests which are a mystery both to its predecessors and to posterity.

People who love soft methods and hate iniquity forget this,—that reform consists in taking a bone from a dog. Philosophy will not do it.

Practical Agitation (1900)

Good government is the outcome of private virtue.

Practical Agitation (1900)

When a man talks with absolute sincerity and freedom he goes on a voyage of discovery. The whole company has shares in the enterprise.

It is just as impossible to help reform by conciliating prejudice as it is by buying votes. Prejudice is the enemy. Whoever is not for you is against you.

Practical Agitation (1900)

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Three-fourths of the Italian economy, industrial and agricultural, is in the hands of the state.

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Fear and destructiveness are the major emotional sources of fascism, eros belongs mainly to democracy.

Theodor Adorno The Authoritarian Personality (1950)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: John Jay Chapman (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.