Leadership Quote by James A. Garfield

A blunt rebuke to the comforting myth that history is run by fate. Garfield’s line has the snap of a proverb, but its real force is political: “things” don’t “turn up” on their own, not jobs, not reforms, not justice. They’re unearthed by someone willing to dig, pry, and risk blame. The repetition of “turn up” is doing double duty. It sounds casual, almost domestic, like finding lost keys. That’s the trick. Garfield makes agency feel ordinary, not heroic, implying that passivity is the only truly unnatural stance.

The subtext is a warning aimed at citizens and officeholders alike: waiting is a decision. In a democracy, neglect isn’t neutral; it quietly votes for the status quo. Garfield, a self-made striver who rose from poverty through education and political organizing, speaks from lived experience of systems that don’t reward hope unless it’s paired with effort. Coming into the Gilded Age, with industrial power consolidating and patronage politics corroding trust, this reads as an argument against drift. Corruption, inequality, and administrative rot don’t “resolve themselves.” They’re “turned up” by investigation, lawmaking, and public pressure.

It also foreshadows Garfield’s own presidency, cut short by assassination amid fierce battles over spoils and civil service reform. In that context, the sentence becomes almost tragic: change requires action, and action provokes resistance. It’s a compact, unsentimental creed for political life: if you want outcomes, you have to disturb the ground that’s hiding them.