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John Jay Chapman

John Jay Chapman (March 2, 1862 – November 4, 1933) was an American author.

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John Jay Chapman Quotes

Attack another's rights and you destroy your own.

Attack, Destroy, Liberty, Rights

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.

America, Conflict, Hardihood, Hate, Squash

A political organization is a transferable commodity. You could not find a better way of killing virtue than by packing it into one of these contraptions which some gang of thieves is sure to find useful.

Contraptions, Organization, Packing, Political, Thieves, Way

The reason for the slow progress of the world seems to lie in a single fact. Every man is born under the yoke, and grows up beneath the oppressions of his age. He can only get a vision of the unselfish forces in the world by appealing to them, and every appeal is a call to arms. If he fights he must fight, not one man, but a conspiracy. He is always at war with a civilization. On his side is proverbial philosophy, a galaxy of invisible saints and sages, and the half-developed consciousness and professions of everybody. Against him is the world, and every selfish passion in his own heart.

Consciousness, Conspiracy, Growing Up, Grows, Lying, Philosophy

Is there something in trade that desiccates and flattens out, that turns men into dried leaves at the age of forty? Certainly there is. It is not due to trade but to intensity of self-seeking, combined with narrowness of occupation. Business has destroyed the very knowledge in us of all other natural forces except business.

Age, Desiccates, Dried, Except, Men, Self

The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he has of the principles of counterpoint. Each is a thing used in politics or music which those fellows who practice politics or music manipulate somehow. Show him one and he will deny that it is politics at all. It must be corrupt or he will not recognize it. He has only seen dried figs. He has only thought dried thoughts. A live thought or a real idea is against the rules of his mind.

Men, Music, Politics, Real, Show, Thoughts

So long as there is any subject which men may not freely discuss, they are timid upon all subjects.

Discuss, Long, May, Men, Subject

A magazine or a newspaper is a shop. Each is an experiment and represents a new focus, a new ratio between commerce and intellect.

Experiment, Focus, Magazine, Magazines, Ratios

The world values the seer above all men, and has always done so. Nay, it values all men in proportion as they partake of the character of seers. The Elgin Marbles and a decision of John Marshall are valued for the same reason. What we feel in them is a painstaking submission to facts beyond the author's control, and to ideas imposed on him by his vision. So with Beethoven's Symphonies, with Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations - with any conceivable output of the human mind of which you approve. You love them because you say, These things were not made, they were seen.

Character, Facts, Men, Seen, Symphony, Values

A vision of truth which does not call upon us to get out of our armchair - why, this is the desideratum of mankind.

Armchairs, Desideratum, Doe, Mankind, Truth, Vision

The world values the seer above all men, and has always done so. Nay, it values all men in proportion as they partake of the character of seers. You love them because you say, These things were not made, they were seen.

Character, Men, Nay, Seen, Sight, Values

Too much agreement kills the chat.

Agreement, Chat, Kills, Too Much

The reason for the slow progress of the world seems to lie in a single fact. Every man is born under the yoke, and grows up beneath the oppressions of his age.

Growing Up, Lying, Man, Men, Oppressions, Single

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

Absolute, Discovery, Freedom, Goes On, Men, Shares

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.

Dog, Hate, Love, Philosophy, Reform

The men and woman who make the best boon companions seem to have given up hope of doing something else. . . some defect of talent or opportunity has cut them off from their pet ambition and has thus left them with leisure to take an interest in their lives of others. Your ambition may be, it makes him keep his thoughts at home. But the heartbroken people - if I may use the word in a mild, benevolent sense - the people whose wills are subdued to fate, give us consolation, recognition, and welcome.

Ambition, Give, Heartbroken, Home, Take

The present in New York is so powerful that the past is lost.

Lost, New York, Past, Powerful, Present

Good government is the outcome of private virtue.

Government, Outcome, Outcomes, Private, Virtue

It is three and a half hours long, four characters wide and a cesspool deep.

Cesspool, Character, Deep, Four, Long, Three

The short lesson that comes out of long experience in political agitation is something like this: all the motive power in all of these movements is the instinct of religious feeling. All the obstruction comes from attempting to rely on anything else. Conciliation is the enemy.

Experience, Long, Motive, Political, Religious

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