Theodore Parker (August 24, 1810 - May 10, 1860) was an American Transcendentalist and reforming minister of the Unitarian church. A reformer and abolitionist, his words and quotations which he popularized would later inspire speeches by Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Click here for full Wikipedia article)
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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.
All men desire to be immortal.
As society advances, the standard of poverty rises.
Disappointment is often the salt of life.
Every rose is an autograph from the hand of the Almighty God.
I 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 experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.
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.
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. 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.
Justice is moral temperance in the world of men. It keeps just relations between men; one man, however little, must not be sacrificed to another, however great, to a majority, or to all men.
Justice is the constitution or fundamental law of the moral universe, the law of right, a rule of conduct for man in all his moral relations.
Let others laugh when you sacrifice desire to duty, if they will. You have time and eternity to rejoice in.
Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I 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.
Magnificent promises are always to be suspected.
Man never falls so low that he can see nothing higher than himself.
Marriages are best of dissimilar material.
Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect. Be true to your own mind and conscience, your heart and your soul. So only can you be true to God.
Observation and reflection only give us the actual of morals; conscience, by gradual and successive intuition, presents us the ideal of morals.
One man, however little, must not be sacrificed to another, however great, to a majority, or to all men.
Outward judgment often fails, inward judgment never.
Politics is the science of urgencies.
Remorse is the pain of sin.
The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.
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.
The universe itself is a great autograph of the Almighty.
The world has grown rich and refined, but chiefly by the efforts of those who themselves continue poor and ignorant.
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.
Truth stood on one side and Ease on the other; it has often been so.
Wealth 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.
Categories: Quotes of the day, Theodore Parker
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