“Man never falls so low, that he can see nothing higher than himself.”
"A Lesson for the Day; or The Christianity of Christ, of the Church, and of Society" in The Dial (October 1940), p. 196.
Context: Every man has at times in his mind the Ideal of what he should be, but is not. This ideal may be high and complete, or it may be quite low and insufficient; yet in all men, that really seek to improve, it is better than the actual character. Perhaps no one is satisfied with himself, so that he never wishes to be wiser, better, and more holy. Man never falls so low, that he can see nothing higher than himself.
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Theodore Parker31
abolitionist 1810–1860Related quotes
John Campbell Shairp (1819–1885) British writer
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 565.
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“No nobler feeling than this of admiration for one higher than himself dwells in the breast of man.”
Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish philosopher, satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher
1840s, Heroes and Hero-Worship (1840), The Hero as Divinity
Context: No nobler feeling than this of admiration for one higher than himself dwells in the breast of man. It is to this hour, and at all hours, the vivifying influence in man's life.
Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) German poet, playwright, theatre director
"Speech to Danish working-class actors on the art of observation" [Rede an dänische Arbeiterschauspieler über die Kunst der Beobachtung] (1934), from The Messingkauf Poems, published in Versuche 14 (1955); trans. John Willett in Poems, 1913-1956, pp. 235-236
Poems, 1913-1956 (1976)
“A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Mark Twain and I by Opie Read