John Dewey

There is no need to argue that the two positions demand different gifts, and that achievement in one is no proof of fitness for the other.

States nominally democratic show the same tendency to assume that a winning general has some quasi-divine appointment to political office.

Reason would teach that oftentimes even the politicians who are most successful in instigating the willingness of the civilian population to support a war are by that very fact incapacitated for the offices of making a just and enduring…

It is human nature to think along the easiest lines, and this induces men when they want conspicuous leaders in the civil function to fasten upon those who are already conspicuous, no matter what the reason.

The emoluments, pomp and power which go with rule are not thought to need justification.

The causes which operate to induce men to strive for any shining object operate with increased appeal in the case of governmental power.

The centralization and scope of functions which are needed in order to serve the interests of the public become, in other words, seductions to draw state officials into subserving private ends.

All history shows how difficult it is for human beings to bear effectually in mind the objects for the nominal sake of which they are clothed with power and pomp; it shows the ease with which they employ their panoply to advance private…

The ease of routine, the difficulty of ascertaining public needs, the intensity of the glare which attends the seat of the mighty, desire for immediate and visible results, play the larger part.

But one wonders whether those who so readily utter this saying have asked themselves into whose hands industry is to pass?

But, alas, the public has no hands except those of individual human beings.

If one wishes to realize the distance which may lie between “facts” and the meaning of facts, let one go to the field of social discussion.