I have had several
experiences of that sort, and it has led me, whenever I confer, to hold
my particular opinion provisionally, as my contribution to go into the
final result but not to dominate the final result.
That is the ideal of a government like ours, and an interesting thing is
that if you only talk about an idea that will not work long enough,
everybody will see perfectly plainly that it will not work; whereas, if
you do not talk about it, and do not have a great many people talk about
it, you are in danger of having the people who handle it think that it
will work. Many minds are necessary to compound a workable method of
life in a various and populous country; and as I think about the whole
thing and picture the purposes, the infinitely difficult and complex
purposes which we must conceive and carry out, not only does it
minister to my own modesty, I hope, of opinion, but it also fills me
with a very great enthusiasm. It is a splendid thing to be part of a
great wide-awake Nation. It is a splendid thing to know that your own
strength is infinitely multiplied by the strength of other men who love
the country as you do.
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