“Puritanism, believing itself quick with the seed of religious liberty, laid, without knowing it, the egg of democracy.”
Literary Essays, vol. II (1870–1890), New England Two Centuries Ago
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
James Russell Lowell 175
American poet, critic, editor, and diplomat 1819–1891Related quotes
“Remorse, the fatal egg by Pleasure laid.”
Source: The Progress of Error (1782), Line 240.
Essentials to Peace (1953)
Context: We must present democracy as a force holding within itself the seeds of unlimited progress by the human race. By our actions we should make it clear that such a democracy is a means to a better way of life, together with a better understanding among nations. Tyranny inevitably must retire before the tremendous moral strength of the gospel of freedom and self-respect for the individual, but we have to recognize that these democratic principles do not flourish on empty stomachs, and that people turn to false promises of dictators because they are hopeless and anything promises something better than the miserable existence that they endure. However, material assistance alone is not sufficient. The most important thing for the world today in my opinion is a spiritual regeneration which would reestablish a feeling of good faith among men generally. Discouraged people are in sore need of the inspiration of great principles. Such leadership can be the rallying point against intolerance, against distrust, against that fatal insecurity that leads to war. It is to be hoped that the democratic nations can provide the necessary leadership.
“[…] a course laid between the seed and the snare”
Source: Poena Damni The First Death, p. 35, Shoestring Press, 2000.
La liberté politique, la tranquillité d'une nation, la science même, sont des présents pour lesquels le destin prélève des impôts de sang!
About Catherine de' Medici (1842), Part III: The Two Dreams
Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar, Ch. V
Following the Equator (1897)
The Dangers of American Liberty (1805), in [Ames, Fisher, and Seth Ames, Works of Fisher Ames: with a selection from his speeches and correspondence, 1854, Little, Brown, 349, Boston, http://books.google.com/books?id=fjoOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA349&vq=known+propensity]
A Little Book in C Major, New York, NY, John Lane Company (1916) p. 76
1910s
Source: The Boat of a Million Years (1989), Chapter 18 “Judgment Day”, Section 3 (p. 330)