“The emperor hold upon the Chinamen may be strong, but the Chinaman's hold upon himself is stronger”
1860s, Our Composite Nationality (1869)
Context: Men differ widely as to the magnitude of this potential Chinese immigration. The fact that by the late treaty with China we bind ourselves to receive immigrants from that country only as the subjects of the Emperor, and by the construction at least are bound not to naturalize them, and the further fact that Chinamen themselves have a superstitious devotion to their country and an aversion to permanent location in any other, contracting even to have their bones carried back, should they die abroad, and from the fact that many have returned to China, and the still more stubborn fact that resistance to their coming has increased rather than diminished, it is inferred that we shall never have a large Chinese population in America. This, however, is not my opinion. It may be admitted that these reasons, and others, may check and moderate the tide of immigration; but it is absurd to think that they will do more than this. Counting their number now by the thousands, the time is not remote when they will count them by the millions. The emperor hold upon the Chinamen may be strong, but the Chinaman's hold upon himself is stronger.
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Frederick Douglass 274
American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman 1818–1895Related quotes
“Justice in holdings is historical; it depends upon what actually has happened.”
Source: Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), Ch. 7 : Distributive Justice, Section I, The Entitlement Theory, p. 152
Context: Justice in holdings is historical; it depends upon what actually has happened. We shall return to this point later.
“A deep sleep took hold upon him and eased the burden of his sorrows.”
XXIII. 343–344 (tr. Samuel Butler).
Odyssey (c. 725 BC)
Source: Libertarianism: A Political Philosophy for Tomorrow, (1971), p. 411-412
“Is love stronger when it let's go or when it holds on?”
Source: Kartography
Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XCII: On the Happy Life
“He who holds me by a thread is not strong; the thread is strong.”
Quien me tiene de un hilo no es fuerte; lo fuerte es el hilo.
Voces (1943)
1960, Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association
Context: That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe — a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one religious group nor tarnished by arbitrarily withholding its occupancy from the members of any one religious group. I believe in a President whose religious views are his own private affair, neither imposed by him upon the nation or imposed by the nation upon him as a condition to holding that office.
Quote, First State of the Union Address (1865)
“I do not want to pass the time. I want to grab hold of it and leave my mark upon the world.”
Source: The Sweet Far Thing