It is an axiom in political science that unless a people are educated and enlightened it is idle to expect the continuance of civi...l liberty or the capacity for self-government.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Our discussion will be adequate; if it has as much clearness as the subject-matter admits of; for precision is not to be sought fo...r alike in all discussions, and more than in all the products of the crafts. Now fine and just actions, which political science investigates, exhibit much variety and fluctuation, so that they may be thought to exist only by convention, and not by nature. And goods also exhibit a similar fluctuation.... We must be content, then, in speaking of such subjects and with such premises, to indicate the truth roughly and in outline.... In the same spirit, therefore, should each of our statements be received; for it is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject admits: it is evidently equally foolish to accept probable reasoning from a mathematician and to demand from a rhetorician demonstrative proofs.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Hence a young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; for he is inexperienced in the actions that occur in li...fe, but its discussions start from these and are about these; and, further, since he tends to follow his passions, his study will be vain and unprofitable, because the end aimed at is not knowledge but action.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; for he is inexperienced in the actions that occur in life, bu...t its discussions start from these and are about these; and, further, since he tends to follow his passions, his study will be vain and unprofitable, because the end that is aimed at is not knowledge but action. And it makes no difference whether he is young in years or youthful in character.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In a town-meeting, the great secret of political science was uncovered, and the problem solved, how to give every individual his f...air weight in the government, without any disorder from numbers. In a town-meeting, the roots of society were reached. Here the rich gave counsel, but the poor also; and moreover, the just and the unjust.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The method of political science ... is the interpretation of life; its instrument is insight, a nice understanding of subtle, unfo...rmulated conditions.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The simple opposition between the people and big business has disappeared because the people themselves have become so deeply invo...lved in big business.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The military struggle may frankly be regarded for what it actually was, namely a war for independence, an armed attempt to impose ...the views of the revolutionists upon the British government and large sections of the colonial population at whatever cost to freedom of opinion or the sanctity of life and property.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The competent leader of men cares little for the niceties of other peoples' characters: he cares much--everything--for the exterio...r uses to which they may be put.... These are men to be moved. How should he move them? He supplies the power; others simply the materials on which that power operates.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Your real statesman is first of all, and chief of all, a great human being, with an eye for all the great fields on which men like... himself struggle, with unflagging, pathetic hope, toward better things.... He is a guide, a counselor, a mentor, a servant, a friend of mankind.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »