01c. 1835 ADThere is what I call the American idea. . . . 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 of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God. For shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
02c. 1835 ADThe books which help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is by easy reading: but a great book that comes from a great thinker—it is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and with beauty.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
03c. 1835 ADIt is very sad for a man to make himself servant to a thing, his manhood all taken out of him by the hydraulic pressure of excessive business. I should not like to be merely a great doctor, a great lawyer, a great minister, a great politician—I should like to be also something of a man.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
05c. 1835 ADLet us do our duty in our shop or our kitchen, the market, the street, the office, the school, the home, just as faithfully as if we stood in the front rank of some great battle, and we knew that victory for mankind depended upon our bravery, strength, and skill. When we do that the humblest of us will be serving in that great army which achieves the welfare of the world.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
06c. 1835 ADLet men laugh when you sacrifice desire to duty, if they will. You have time and eternity to rejoice in.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
10c. 1835 ADThe great man has more of human nature than other men organised in him.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
11c. 1835 ADWealth and want equally harden the human heart, as frost and fire are both alien to the human flesh. Famine and gluttony alike drive nature away from the heart of man.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
12c. 1835 ADWork is the only universal currency which God accepts. A nation's welfare will depend on its ability to master the world; that, on power of work; that, on its power of thought.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
14c. 1835 ADI recommend no sour ascetic life. I believe not only in the thorns on the rosebush, but in the roses which the thorns defend. Asceticism is the child of sensuality and superstition. She is the secret mother of many a secret sin. God, when he made man's body, did not give us a fibre too much, nor a passion too many. I would steal no violet from the young maiden's bosom; rather would I fill her arms with more fragrant roses. But a life merely of pleasure, or chiefly of pleasure, is always a poor and worthless life, not worth the living; always unsatisfactory in its course, always miserable in its end.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
15c. 1835 ADConscience enables us not merely to learn the right by experiment and induction, but intuitively and in advance of experiment; so, in addition to the experimental way whereby we learn justice from the facts of human history, we have a transcendental way, and learn it from the facts of human nature, and from immediate consciousness.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
16c. 1835 ADThe earnestness of life is the only passport to the satisfaction of life.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
17c. 1835 ADMan is the highest product of his own history. The discoverer finds nothing so grand or tall as himself, nothing so valuable to him. The greatest star is at the small end of the telescope, the star that is looking, not looked after nor looked at.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
18c. 1835 ADI am surprised that intelligent men do not see the immense value of good temper in their homes; and am amazed that they will take such pains to have costly houses and fine furniture, and yet sometimes neglect to bring home with them good temper.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
19c. 1835 ADLet us do our duty in our shop or our kitchen, the market, the street, the office, the school, the home, just as faithfully as if we stood in the front rank of some great battle, and we knew that victory for mankind depended on our bravery, strength, and skill. When we do that, the humblest of us will be serving in that great army which achieves the welfare of the world.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
20c. 1835 ADFather, I will not ask for wealth or fame, Though once they would have joyed my carnal sense. I shudder not to bear a hated name, Wanting all wealth, myself my sole defence. But give me, Lord, eyes to behold the truth; A seeing sense that knows the eternal right; A heart with pity filled, and gentlest ruth; A manly faith that makes all darkness light; Give me the power to labor for mankind; Make me the mouth of such as cannot speak; Eyes let me be to groping man and blind; A conscience to the base; and to the weak Let me be hands and feet; and to the foolish, mind; And lead still farther on such as Thy Kingdom seek.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
21c. 1835 ADThe arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
23c. 1835 ADI do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight, I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice.Theodore Parker / quote ↗
24c. 1835 ADDemocracy means not "I am as good as you are " but "You are as good as I am."Theodore Parker / quote ↗
