“[T]he one unforgivable sin, according to dominant Southern public opinion, was moral condemnation of slavery.”

Source: 2000s, A New Birth of Freedom: Abraham Lincoln and the Coming of the Civil War (2000), p. 249

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "[T]he one unforgivable sin, according to dominant Southern public opinion, was moral condemnation of slavery." by Harry V. Jaffa?
Harry V. Jaffa photo
Harry V. Jaffa 171
American historian and collegiate professor 1918–2015

Related quotes

Margaret Mitchell photo
Sophrony (Sakharov) photo

“No sin is unforgivable except the sin that is not repented of.”

Sophrony (Sakharov) (1896–1993) Russian monk, theologian and writer

Source: Saint Silouan the Athonite (1991), p. 83

Agatha Christie photo
Arnold Toynbee photo
William Cobbett photo

“A full belly to the labourer was, in my opinion, the foundation of public morals and the only source of real public peace.”

William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist

Source: The Autobiography of William Cobbett (1933), Ch. 12, pp. 185-186.

Leo Tolstoy photo

“In order that the conditions of a life contrary to the consciousness of humanity should change and be replaced by one which is in accord with it, the outworn public opinion must be superseded by a new and living one.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: Patriotism and Christianity http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Patriotism_and_Christianity (1896), Ch. 17
Context: One man does not assert the truth which he knows, because he feels himself bound to the people with whom he is engaged; another, because the truth might deprive him of the profitable position by which he maintains his family; a third, because he desires to attain reputation and authority, and then use them in the service of mankind; a fourth, because he does not wish to destroy old sacred traditions; a fifth, because he has no desire to offend people; a sixth, because the expression of the truth would arouse persecution, and disturb the excellent social activity to which he has devoted himself.
One serves as emperor, king, minister, government functionary, or soldier, and assures himself and others that the deviation from truth indispensable to his condition is redeemed by the good he does. Another, who fulfils the duties of a spiritual pastor, does not in the depths of his soul believe all he teaches, but permits the deviation from truth in view of the good he does. A third instructs men by means of literature, and notwithstanding the silence he must observe with regard to the whole truth, in order not to stir up the government and society against himself, has no doubt as to the good he does. A fourth struggles resolutely with the existing order as revolutionist or anarchist, and is quite assured that the aims he pursues are so beneficial that the neglect of the truth, or even of the falsehood, by silence, indispensable to the success of his activity, does not destroy the utility of his work.
In order that the conditions of a life contrary to the consciousness of humanity should change and be replaced by one which is in accord with it, the outworn public opinion must be superseded by a new and living one. And in order that the old outworn opinion should yield its place to the new living one, all who are conscious of the new requirements of existence should openly express them. And yet all those who are conscious of these new requirements, one in the name of one thing, and one in the name of another, not only pass them over in silence, but both by word and deed attest their exact opposites.

“To condemn your sin in another is hypocrisy. Not to condemn is to reserve your right to sin.”

James Richardson (1950) American poet

#196
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001)

Jorge Luis Borges photo

“Your unforgivable sins do not allow you to see my splendor.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

"The masked dyer Hakim of Merv" [El tintorero enmascarado Hakim de Merv] Universal History of Infamy (1935); also translated as "Hakim, Masked Dyer of Merv" ( review of "Hakim, Masked Dyer of Merv" http://www.elimae.com/reviews/borges/merv.html)

Gene Wolfe photo
Ilana Mercer photo

Related topics