“Changin' laws an' legislatures ain't, as fur as I can see,
Goin' to make this world much better, unless somehow we can
Find a way to make a better an' a finer sort o' man.
The trouble ain't with statutes or with systems—not at all;
It's with humans jus' like we [are] an' their petty ways an' small.
We could stop our writin' law-books an' our regulatin' rules
If a better sort of manhood was the product of our schools.
For the things that we air needin' isn't writin' from a pen
Or bigger guns to shoot with, but a bigger type of men.”

— Edgar Guest

Source: All That Matters (1922), p.57 - The Need, from stanzas 1 (part) and 2.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Jan. 27, 2022. History

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Edgar Guest 61

American writer 1881–1959

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