What if good institutions were in fact the product of good intentions? What if the cynicism that is supposed to be rigor and the acquisitiveness that is supposed to be realism are making us forget the origins of the greatness we lay claim to - power and wealth as secondary consequences of the progress of freedom, or, as Whitman would prefer, Democracy? Marilynne Robinson
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The American poet Walt Whitman once said that what if good institutions were in fact the product of good intentions. What if the cynicism that is supposed to be rigor and the acquisitiveness that is supposed to be realism are making us forget the origins of the greatness we lay claim to- power and wealth as secondary consequences of the progress of freedom, or, as Whitman would prefer, Democracy.

Source: When I Was A Child I Read Books

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