John Jay Chapman

John Jay Chapman (March 2, 1862 – November 4, 1933) was an American writer and essayist, born in New York City.

Quotes

 * When a man talks with absolute sincerity and freedom he goes on a voyage of discovery. The whole company has shares in the enterprise.
 * Society, Causes and Consequences (1898)


 * Every generation is a secret society and has incommunicable enthusiasms, tastes and interests which are a mystery both to its predecessors and to posterity.
 * Memories and Milestones, [HTTP://BOOKS.GOOGLE.COM/books?id=gFEPAAAAMAAJ&q=%22every+generation+is+a+secret+society+and+has+incommunicable+enthusiasms+tastes+and+interests+which+are+a+mystery+both+to+its+predecessors+and+to+posterity%22&pg=PA184#v=onepage Ch. 12: "President Eliot"] (1915)

Practical Agitation (1900)

 * It is just as impossible to help reform by conciliating prejudice as it is by buying votes. Prejudice is the enemy. Whoever is not for you is against you.
 * Chapter 1
 * 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.
 * Chapter 1
 * 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.
 * Chapter 1
 * 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.
 * Chapter 7
 * Our goodness comes solely from thinking on goodness; our wickedness from thinking on wickedness. We too are the victims of our own contemplation.
 * Chapter 7
 * Good government is the outcome of private virtue.
 * Chapter 2
 * 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.
 * Chapter 1

The Two Philosophers: A Quaint, Sad Comedy (1892)
The Two Philosophers: A Quaint, Sad Comedy

Act 1
 * I've studied every science round,
 * And many a doctrine have I found;
 * Greek and German roots of thought
 * In years of labor have I sought;
 * And every gnarled and eyed potato
 * Out of Zoroaster and Plato
 * Do I plant in your young heads,
 * And watch 'em sprout as in hot-beds

Act 2
 * And since we speak of culture,
 * What is culture, do you think?


 * FIRST SCHOLAR.
 * Culture is spiritual food
 * And intellectual drink.


 * REGIUS.
 * A petty saying, — I confess
 * Not quite what I expected.
 * Let some one make another guess,

Act III


 * Notice is hereby given that one
 * Of your professors in your college
 * Has made a scurvy attack upon
 * The American school of knowledge,
 * Which said attack is couched in words
 * Unmeasured and profane,
 * And seems to show, conclusively,
 * The writer is insane.
 * But sane or mad, the writer is
 * Grossly devoid of truth,
 * And wickedly incompetent
 * To have the charge of youth.