The legislator is an indispensable guardian of our freedom. It is true that great executives have played a powerful role in the development of civilization, but such leaders appear sporadically, by chance. They do not always appear when they are most needed. The great executives have given inspiration and push to the advancement of human society, but it is the legislator who has given stability and continuity to that slow and painful progress.

"The Legislator," lecture delivered at the University of Chicago (1946), edited for the Committee on Social Thought by Robert B. Heywood, p. 119 (1947)