There is very little moral mixture in the 'Antislavery' feeling of this country. A great deal is abstract philanthropy; part is hatred of slaveholders; a great part is jealousy for white labor, very little is consciousness of wrong done and the wish to right it.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the motives behind antislavery sentiments, suggesting they are often mixed and not purely moral.
George William Curtis highlights the complexities of the antislavery movement in America, arguing that while there are noble intentions, such as a desire to end injustice, many motivations are influenced by self-interest, social jealousy, or mere abstract philanthropy rather than a genuine moral condemnation of slavery itself. This reflection prompts deeper consideration of the true intentions behind social reform movements.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about the motivations behind social justice movements in academic settings.
I think that to have known one good, old man-one man, who, through the chances and mischances of a long life, has carried his heart in his hand, like a palm-branch, waving all discords into peace-helps our faith in God, in ourselves, and in each other more than many sermons
Reputation is favorable notoriety as distinguished from fame, which is permanent approval of great deeds and noble thoughts by the best intelligence of mankind.
The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.
Granted: I AM an inmate of a mental hospital; my keeper is watching me, he never lets me out of his sight; there's a peep-hole in the door, and my keeper's eye is the shade of brown that can never see through a blue-eyed type like me.
The unvarnished truth is that we have spent the last decade funding the machinery of war, and our children have been sacrificed.
A belief is only a thought you continue to think. A belief is nothing more than a chronic pattern of thought, and you have the ability - if you try even a little bit - to begin a new pattern, to tell a new story, to achieve a different vibration, to change your point of attraction.
As individuals express their life, so they are. What they are, therefore, coincides with their production, both with what they produce and with how they produce. The nature of individuals thus depends on the material conditions determining their production.
My hypothesis is that for people who are both trained and inclined to think in rigorously logical ways, it is particularly difficult to adapt to the Soviet system of doublethink.
I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.