Political Quotes

On the record
For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom you inevitably assemble with those men all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views.
Said by
James Beck
Republican · Pennsylvania

Editor's note · Context

Beck reflects on the inherent challenges of collective decision-making in a constitutional convention.

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They differed, at times heatedly, but always as gentlemen of candour and honour.

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The consequence is that again and again we are running the risk of perpetrating the most grotesque errors of judgment, of committing the most serious political blunders, in defiance of American public opinion.

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Man has danced upon the verge of a social abyss, and, as previously suggested, the dancing has, both in form and in accompanying music, lost its former grace and reverted to the primitive forms of crude vulgarity.

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