Source: Why We Fail as Christians (1919), p. 60
Context: The greatest obstacle that confronted Tolstoy lies rooted deep in the soul of man. It is the fear of poverty and the dread of want which ages of struggle with man and beast and with all the adverse elements of nature has bred in us. Surely history teaches us too well the nature and character of man for us to believe readily that there are many fathers and mothers who would ever consent to become Christians on the conditions set forth by Tolstoy.... who to day would fail to condemn unreservedly any father who would take his babies from a comfortable home to live hungry and shelterless in the forests and fields. From the dawn of the world the chief duty of a parent has been to keep his family secure from want.
“Thrift and foresight are among the chief teachings of all missionaries to the poor and the present day world has little sympathy for any parent”
also see Charles Dickens, Bleak House
p. 60
Why We Fail as Christians (1919)
Context: Thrift and foresight are among the chief teachings of all missionaries to the poor and the present day world has little sympathy for any parent—whether a Harold Skimpole, a Mrs. Jellyby, a Jean Jacques Rousseau, or a Leo Tolstoy—who for any cause whatsoever feels that he should give no thought for the morrow and that his children may live like the fowls of the air.
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Robert Hunter (author) 98
American sociologist, author, golf course architect 1874–1942Related quotes
Mahatma Gandhi The Collected Works Volume 61, Ahmedabad, 1975, p, 46-57. As quoted in Goel, S.R. History of Hindu-Christian Encounters (1996)
Posthumous publications (1950s and later)
“Where it is the chief aim to teach many things, little education is given or received.”
Source: Aphorisms and Reflections (1901), p. 232
For My Legionaries: The Iron Guard (1936), Jewish Problem
“The foresight of financial experts was, as so often, a poor guide to the future.”
Source: Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went (1975), Chapter XI, The Fall, p. 136
The Note Book of Elbert Hubbard (1927)
Asia and Western Dominance: a survey of the Vasco Da Gama epoch of Asian history, 1498–1945