"Every age needs men who will redeem the time by living with a vision of the things that are to be"
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Stevenson’s line treats history less like a parade and more like a ticking meter that can be squandered or saved. “Redeem the time” borrows the moral charge of scripture while sidestepping piety: time is a debt, and public life is where you either pay it down or let interest compound. For a mid-century American politician who made his name as an eloquent liberal voice in the Cold War, that framing matters. Stevenson is arguing against the managerial idea that politics is just maintenance. He’s insisting it’s stewardship with a horizon.
The phrase “living with a vision” does quiet rhetorical work. He’s not asking for people who merely speak about the future, draft memos, or win elections; he wants people who embody an orientation toward what’s next. “Living” makes the future ethical, not abstract. It implies discipline, patience, and a willingness to look faintly out of step with the moment.
The subtext is a critique of complacent pragmatism. In the 1950s and early 60s, American politics was thick with consensus talk, anti-communist anxiety, and the temptation to confuse stability with virtue. Stevenson’s sentence pushes back: an “age” will always produce excuses for smallness; it needs individuals who resist the tyranny of the immediate headline.
The final clause, “the things that are to be,” has a deliberately spacious vagueness. It avoids policy particulars so the audience can project: civil rights, internationalism, a less fearful civic culture. That openness is the point. Stevenson is selling a posture - moral imagination as a civic duty - and daring his listeners to measure their era not by what it preserves, but by what it makes possible.
The phrase “living with a vision” does quiet rhetorical work. He’s not asking for people who merely speak about the future, draft memos, or win elections; he wants people who embody an orientation toward what’s next. “Living” makes the future ethical, not abstract. It implies discipline, patience, and a willingness to look faintly out of step with the moment.
The subtext is a critique of complacent pragmatism. In the 1950s and early 60s, American politics was thick with consensus talk, anti-communist anxiety, and the temptation to confuse stability with virtue. Stevenson’s sentence pushes back: an “age” will always produce excuses for smallness; it needs individuals who resist the tyranny of the immediate headline.
The final clause, “the things that are to be,” has a deliberately spacious vagueness. It avoids policy particulars so the audience can project: civil rights, internationalism, a less fearful civic culture. That openness is the point. Stevenson is selling a posture - moral imagination as a civic duty - and daring his listeners to measure their era not by what it preserves, but by what it makes possible.
Quote Details
| Topic | Vision & Strategy |
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