Theodore Parker Quotes
Cities have always been the fireplaces of civilization, whence light and heat radiated out into the dark.
I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one. . . . But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.
Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect. Be true to your own mind and conscience, your heart and your soul. So only can you be true to God.
It takes a Newton to forge a Newton. What man could have fabricated a Jesus? None but a Jesus.
That which is called liberality is frequently nothing more than the vanity of giving.
Self-denial is indispensable to a strong character, and the highest kind comes from a religious stock.
Truth never yet fell dead in the streets; it has such affinity with the soul of man, the seed however broadcast will catch somewhere and produce its hundredfold.
Gratitude is a nice touch of beauty added last of all to the countenance. Giving a classic beauty, an angelic loveliness, to the character.
You may not, cannot, appropriate beauty. It is the wealth of the eye, and a cat may gaze upon a king.
Did the mass of men know the actual selfishness and injustice of their rulers, not a government would stand a year. - The world would foment with revolution.
It is vain to trust in wrong; as much of evil, so much of loss, is the formula of human history.
The use of great men is to serve the little men, to take care of the human race, and act as practical interpreters of justice and truth.
It is not from the tall crowded workhouse of prosperity that men first or clearest see the eternal stars of heaven.
He prays best who, not asking God to do man's work, prays penitence, prays resolutions, and then prays deeds--thus supplicating with heart and head and hands.
Yet, if he would, man cannot live all to this world. If not religious, he will be superstitious. IF he worship not the true God, he will have his idols.
The lottery of honest labor, drawn by time, is the only one whose prizes are worth taking up and carrying home.
Such a large sweet fruit is a complete marriage, that it needs a very long summer to ripen in and then a long winter to mellow and season it.
The whole sum and substance of human history may be reduced to this maxim: that when man departs from the divine means of reaching the divine end, he suffers harm and loss.
The great basis of the Christian faith is compassion; do not dismiss that from your hearts, neither will your Maker.
It is very sad for a man to make himself servant to a single thing; his manhood all taken out of him by the hydraulic pressure of excessive business.
No virtue fades out of mankind. Not over-hopeful by inborn temperament, cautious by long experience, I yet never despair of human virtue.
Let others laugh when you sacrifice desire to duty, if they will. You have time and eternity to rejoice in.
Democracy is direct self-government over all the people, for all the people, by all the people.
In all the world there is nothing so remarkable as a great man, nothing so rare, nothing which so well repays study.
Wit has its place in debate; in controversy it is a legitimate weapon, offensive and defensive.
There never was a great truth but it was reverenced; never a great institution, nor a great man, that did not, sooner or later, receive the reverence of mankind.
