“A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Source: Self-Reliance
“Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.”
Source: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Last update June 3, 2021. History
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Do you have more details about the quote "Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart; and he is relie…" by Frederick Douglass?
Frederick Douglass274
American social reformer, orator, writer and statesman 1818–1895Related quotes
George Fitzhugh (1806–1881) American activist
Source: Sociology For The South: Or The Failure Of A Free Society (1854), p. 27-28
Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now
“Speak, speak, let terror strike slaves mute,
Much danger makes great hearts most resolute.”
John Marston The Wonder of Women
The Wonder of Women, or The Tragedy of Sophonisba, Act II, sc. ii. (1606)
Francesco Petrarca Il Canzoniere
Il sonno è veramente, qual uom dice,
parente de la morte, e 'l cor sottragge
a quel dolce penser che 'n vita il tene.
Canzone 226, st. 3
Il Canzoniere (c. 1351–1353), To Laura in Life
Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author
Sjálfstætt fólk (Independent People) (1935), Book One, Part II: Free of Debt
Context: His mother taught him to sing. And when he had grown up and had listened to the world's song, he felt that there could be no greater happiness than to return to her song. In her song dwelt the most precious and most incomprehensible dreams of mankind. The heath grew into the heavens in those days. The songbirds of the air listened in wonder to this song, the most beautiful song of life.