“More than all, and above all, Washington was master of himself.”
As quoted in Washington's Birthday : Its History, Observance, Spirit, and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse (1918) by Robert Haven Schauffler http://infomotions.com/etexts/gutenberg/dirs/1/5/1/4/15140/15140.htm, p. 143.
Context: More than all, and above all, Washington was master of himself. If there be one quality more than another in his character which may exercise a useful control over the men of the present hour, it is the total disregard of self when in the most elevated positions for influence and example.
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Charles Francis Adams 3
American historical editor, politician and diplomat (1807-1… 1807–1886Related quotes
The Secret of Efficient Expression (1911)
“The slave and master in one skin
Is all your history, no more, no less”
Christ, Old Student in a New School (1972)
Context: Why have you been so blind?
Why have you never seen?
The slave and master in one skin
Is all your history, no more, no less
Confess! This is what you've been.
1920s, Address at the Black Hills (1927)
Un peuple qui trafique de ses enfants est encore plus condamnable que l’acheteur: ce négoce démontre notre supériorité; ce qui se donne un maître était né pour en avoir.
Essai sur les Moeurs et l'Espit des Nations (1753), ch. CXCVII: Résumé de toute cette histoire jusqu’au temps où commence le beau siècle de Louis XIV http://www.voltaire-integral.com/Html/13/02ESS197.html#197
Citas
“The master is himself an animal, and needs a master.”
Sixth Thesis
Variant translations:
Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.
Out of timber so crooked as that from which man is made nothing entirely straight can be built.
From such crooked wood as that which man is made of, nothing straight can be fashioned.
Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View (1784)
Context: The master is himself an animal, and needs a master. Let him begin it as he will, it is not to be seen how he can procure a magistracy which can maintain public justice and which is itself just, whether it be a single person or a group of several elected persons. For each of them will always abuse his freedom if he has none above him to exercise force in accord with the laws. The highest master should be just in himself, and yet a man. This task is therefore the hardest of all; indeed, its complete solution is impossible, for from such crooked wood as man is made of, nothing perfectly straight can be built. That it is the last problem to be solved follows also from this: it requires that there be a correct conception of a possible constitution, great experience gained in many paths of life, and — far beyond these — a good will ready to accept such a constitution. Three such things are very hard, and if they are ever to be found together, it will be very late and after many vain attempts.
Theodore Roosevelt, Address Before Congress (February 9, 1919).
“But freedom means more than the right to change masters.”
The Libertarian as Conservative (1984)
Context: Some people giving orders and others obeying them: this is the essence of servitude. Of course, as Hospers smugly observes, “one can at least change jobs,” but you can’t avoid having a job — just as under statism one can at least change nationalities but you can’t avoid subjection to one nation-state or another. But freedom means more than the right to change masters.
“682. One father is more than a hundred schoole-masters.”
Jacula Prudentum (1651)