THEODORE PARKER

It is very sad for a man to make himself servant to a single thing; his manhood all taken out of him by the hydraulic pressure of excessive business.

Politics is the science of urgencies.

No man is so great as mankind.

As society advances the standard of poverty rises.

Cities have always been the fireplaces of civilization, whence light and heat radiated out into the dark.

Self-denial is indispensable to a strong character, and the highest kind comes from a religious stock.

Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect.

Outward judgment often fails, inward judgment never.

Let others laugh when you sacrifice desire to duty, if they will. You have time and eternity to rejoice in.

Wealth and want equally harden the human heart.

The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.

The miser, starving his brother's body, starves also his own soul, and at death shall creep out of his great estate of injustice, poor and naked and miserable.

Remorse is the pain of sin.

Truth never yet fell dead in the streets; it has such affinity with the soul of man, the seed however broadcast will catch somewhere and produce its hundredfold.

Humanity is the sin of God.

Where the carcass of a nation rots there will be the filibusters be gathered together. Every raven in the hungry flock of American politicians looks that way, wipes his greedy beak, prunes his wings, and screams “Manifest Destiny.”

The Catholic clergy are on the side of slavery. They find it is the dominant power, and pay court thereto that they may rise by its help. They love slavery itself; it is an institution thoroughly congenial to them, consistent with the first principles of their Church …

When the people are sheep, the government is always a wolf.

Caution!! Colored People of Boston, One & All. You are hereby respectfully cautioned and advised, to avoid conversing with the Watchmen and Police Officers … for since the recent Order of the Mayor & Aldermen, they are empowered to act as Kidnappers and Slave Catchers, and they have been actually employed in kidnapping, catching and keeping slaves. Therefore, if you value your liberty and the welfare of the fugitives among you, as so many hounds in the track of the most unfortunate of your race. Keep a Sharp Look Out for Kidnappers and have Top Eye open.

This is what I call the American idea of freedom — a government of the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice — the unchanging law of God.

The world has grown rich and refined, but chiefly by the efforts of those who themselves continue poor and ignorant.

Truth stood on one side and Ease on the other; it has often been so.

There is what I call the American idea. I so name it, because it seems to me to lie at the basis of all our truly original, distinctive, and American institutions. It is itself a complex idea, composed of three subordinate and more simple ideas, namely: The idea that all men have unalienable rights; that in respect thereof, all men are created equal; and that government is to be established and sustained for the purpose of giving every man an opportunity for the enjoyment and development of all these unalienable rights. This idea demands, as the proximate organization thereof, a democracy, that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government after the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake, I will call it the idea of Freedom.

Wealth and want equally harden the human heart, like frost and fire both are alien to human flesh. Famine and gluttony alike drive nature away from the heart of man.

The people are not satisfied with any form of government, or statute law, until it comes up to their sense of justice; so every progressive State revises its statutes from time to time, and at each revision comes nearer to the absolute right which human nature demands.