1860s, Allow the humblest man an equal chance (1860)
Context: One of the reasons why I am opposed to Slavery is just here. What is the true condition of the laborer? I take it that it is best for all to leave each man free to acquire property as fast as he can. Some will get wealthy. I don't believe in a law to prevent a man from getting rich; it would do more harm than good. So while we do not propose any war upon capital, we do wish to allow the humblest man an equal chance to get rich with everybody else. When one starts poor, as most do in the race of life, free society is such that he knows he can better his condition; he knows that there is no fixed condition of labor, for his whole life. I am not ashamed to confess that twenty five years ago I was a hired laborer, mauling rails, at work on a flat-boat — just what might happen to any poor man's son! I want every man to have the chance — and I believe a black man is entitled to it — in which he can better his condition — when he may look forward and hope to be a hired laborer this year and the next, work for himself afterward, and finally to hire men to work for him! That is the true system.
“I find that a man is as old as his work. If his work keeps him from moving forward, he will look forward with the work.”
As quoted in The Little Giant Encyclopedia of Inspirational Quotes (2005) by Wendy Toliver, p. 18.
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William Ernest Hocking 31
American philosopher 1873–1966Related quotes
Remark, reported in The New York Post (24 November 2003)
“Then the Father from his starry citadel beholding these glorious deeds of the Greeks and how the mighty work went forward, is glad.”
Siderea tunc arce pater pulcherrima Graium
coepta tuens tantamque operis consurgere molem
laetatur.
Source: Argonautica, Book I, Lines 498–500
“Until you look forward to criticism, your Work’s not done.”
Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (2002)
Priesthood Session of Jordan Utah South Regional Conference, March 1, 1997.
Essays, The Other Six Deadly Sins (1941)
C. S. Lewis, The Allegory of Love (1975 [1936]), p. 222.
Criticism
Quote from Claude Monet par lui-meme – interview by Thiébault-Sisson / translated by Louise McGlone Jacot-Descombes; published in Le Temps newspaper, 26 November 1900
about Johan Jongkind, famous pre-impressionist landscape-painter of Dutch origin, painting then in Honfleur for some years and advising Monet then.
1900 - 1920