WIST Quotations

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Essay (1918-05), “Lincoln and Free Speech,” Metropolitan Magazine, Vol. 47, No. 6

Dave — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 16:25:18 +0000

We hold that our loyalty is due solely to the American Republic, and to all our public servants exactly in proportion as they efficiently and faithfully serve the Republic. Our opponents, in flat contradiction of Lincoln’s position, hold that our loyalty is due to the President, not the country; to one man, the servant of the people, instead of to the people themselves. In practice they adopt the fetishism of all believers in absolutism; for every man who parrots the cry of “stand by the President,” without adding the proviso “so far as he serves the Republic” takes an attitude as essentially unmanly as that of any Stuart Royalist who championed the doctrine that the King could do no wrong. No self-respecting and intelligent freeman can take such an attitude.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Essay (1918-05), “Lincoln and Free Speech,” Metropolitan Magazine, Vol. 47, No. 6
(Source)

On censorious actions by the Wilson Administration taken against critics of its handling of war efforts.

Reprinted in Appendix C of his The Great Adventure (1918), and as ch. 7 of that book in Vol. 21 of The Works of Theodore Roosevelt (1925), The Great Adventure.

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1952-07-21), Democratic National Convention, Chicago

Dave — Fri, 13 Sep 2024 17:43:10 +0000

What counts now is not just what we are against, but what we are for. Who leads us is less important than what leads us — what convictions, what courage, what faith — win or lose. A man doesn’t save a century, or a civilization, but a militant party wedded to a principle can.

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-07-21), Democratic National Convention, Chicago
(Source)

Fromm, Erich -- The Sane Society, ch. 7 (1956)

Dave — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 01:09:25 +0000

Fascism, Nazism and Stalinism have in common that they offered the atomized individual a new refuge and security. These systems are the culmination of alienation. The individual is made to feel powerless and insignificant, but taught to project all of his human powers into the figure of the leader, the state, the “fatherland,” to whom he has to submit and whom he has to worship. He escapes from freedom and into a new idolatry. All the achievements of individuality and reason, from the late Middle Ages to the nineteenth century are sacrificed on the altars of the new idols.

Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
The Sane Society, ch. 7 (1956)
(Source)

Einstein, Albert -- “What I Believe,” Forum and Century (Oct 1930)

Dave — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:44:40 +0000

My political view is democracy. Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
“What I Believe,” Forum and Century (Oct 1930)
(Source)

Variant: "My political ideal is that of democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized." "The World As I See It [Mein Weltbild]" [tr. Harris (1934)].