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Clinton Rossiter Biography

Clinton Lawrence Rossiter III (September 18, 1917 – July 11, 1970) was an American historian and political scientist who taught at Cornell University from 1947 to 1970. He wrote The American Presidency, along with 20 other books on American institutions, the United States Constitution, and history. He won the Bancroft Prize and the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for his book Seedtime of the Republic.

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Clinton Rossiter Quotes

A gathering of Democrats is more sweaty, disorderly, offhand, and rowdy than a gathering of Republicans; it is also likely to be more cheerful, imaginative, tolerant of dissent, and skillful at the game of give-and-take. A gathering of Republicans is more respectable, sober, purposeful, and businesslike than a gathering of Democrats; it is also likely to be more self-righteous, pompous, cut-and-dried, and just plain boring.

Cutting, Games, Pompous, Republicans, Self, Sweaty

The final greatness of the presidency lies in the truth that it is not just an office of incredible power but a breeding ground of indestructible myth.

Breeding, Greatness, Indestructible, Lying, Office

The Americans of 1776 were among the first men in modern society to defend rather than to seek an open society and constitutional liberty. . . . Perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of this political theory sits in its deep-seated conservatism. However radical the principles of the Revolution may have seemed to the rest of the world, in the minds of the colonists they were thoroughly preservative and respectful of the past.

America, Men, Open, Past, Political, Society

The establishment of religious freedom was no less momentous an achievement than the clearing of the great forest or the winning of independence, for the twin doctrines of separation of church and state and liberty of individual conscience are the marrow of our democracy, if not indeed America's most magnificent contribution to the freeing of Western man.

Conscience, Democracy, Liberty, Men, Religious, Winning

The most momentous fact about the pattern of American politics is that we live under a persistent, obdurate, one might almost say tyrannical, two-party system. We have the Republicans and we have the Democrats, and we have almost no one else, no other strictly political aggregate that amounts to a corporal's guard in the struggle for power.

Guard, Momentous, Party, Struggle, System, Two

There is "no happiness without liberty, no liberty without self-government, no self-government without constitutionalism, no constitutionalism without morality--and none of these great goods without stability and order.

Goods, Government, Liberty, Order, Self, Stability

Dictatorship played a decisive role in the North's successful effort to maintain the Union by force of arms. . . one man was the government of the United States. . . Lincoln was a great dictator. . . . This great constitutional dictator was self appointed.

Constitutional, Dictatorship, Maintain, Men, Successful, War

No America without democracy, no democracy without politics no politics without parties, no parties without compromise and moderation.

America, Compromise, Democracy, Moderation, Parties, Party

Conservatism is the worship of dead revolutions.

Conservatism, Dead, Revolution, Worship

The image the Republicans have of themselves needs the image they have of the Democrats to bring it into sharp focus. The Democrats are plainly a disreputable crowd; the Republicans, by contrast, are men of standing and sobriety. Many a middle-class American in many a small town has had to explain painfully why he chose to be a Democrat. No middle-class American need feel uneasy as a Republican. Even when he is a minority--for example, among the heathen on a college campus--he can, like any white, Anglo-Saxon Protestant, warm himself before his little fire of self-esteem.

College, Contrast, Focus, Men, Plainly, Self Esteem

Even if a government can be constitutional without being democratic, it cannot be democratic without being constitutional.

Constitutional, Democratic, Government, Ifs

No form of government can survive that excludes dictatorship when the life of the nation is at stake.

Dictatorship, Excludes, Form, Government, Nation, Stakes

In the end, the difference between Conservatism and Liberalism seems to be this: the Conservative thinks of liberty as something to be preserved, the Liberal thinks of it as something to be enlarged.

Difference, Differences, Liberalism, Liberty, Preserved, Thinking

An annual or frequent choice of Magistrates, who in a year, or in a few years, are again left upon a level with their neighbors, is most likely to prevent usurpation and tyranny. . . If rulers know that they shall in short period of time, be again out of power, and. . . may be liable to be called to account for misconduct, it will guard them against maladministration.

Annual, Choices, Political, Rulers, Year, Years