Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Slaves

• But dare rather to quit the platform, plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, & swim far, so shall you come back with self-respect, with new power, with an advanced experience, that shall explain & overlook the old. Trust your emotion.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Peace, Power

  "A Year with Emerson: A Daybook".

• A man in debt is so far a slave.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Debt, Slave

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.346

• On the other side, the conservative party, composed of the most moderate, able, and cultivated part of the population, is timid, and merely defensive of property. It vindicates no right, it aspires to no real good, it brands no crime, it proposes no generous policy, it does not build, nor write, nor cherish the arts, nor foster religion, nor establish schools, nor encourage science, nor emancipate the slave, nor befriend the poor, or the Indian, or the immigrant.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Art, Real, Writing

  Essays, Second Series "Politics" (1844)

• Wherever a man comes, there comes revolution. The old is for slaves.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Revolution, Slave

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred R. Ferguson (1965). “Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume V: 1835-1838”, p.492, Harvard University Press

• Slavery is an institution for converting men into monkeys.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Slavery, Monkeys

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Alfred R. Ferguson (1965). “Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume V: 1835-1838”, p.295, Harvard University Press

• I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Thinking, Slavery, Slave

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2016). “Selected Writings”, p.8, Simon and Schuster

• Men's actions are too strong for them. Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Strong, Men, Action

  1850 Representative Men,'Goethe'.

• Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Past, Diving Deep, Sea

• Slavery it is that makes slavery; freedom, freedom. The slavery of women happened when the men were slaves of kings.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Kings, Women, Slavery

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2006). “Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected Essays, Lectures and Poems”, p.349, Bantam Classics

• If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Freedom, War, Democracy

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1981). “The Portable Emerson: New Edition”, p.142, Penguin

• Let us leave hurry to slaves.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Time, Slave

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2009). “The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.350, Modern Library

• Nothing is more disgusting than the crowing about liberty by slaves, as most men are, and the flippant mistaking for freedom of some paper preamble like a Declaration of Independence, or the statute right to vote, by those who have never dared to think or to act.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Freedom, Men, Thinking

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2008). “The Spiritual Emerson: Essential Works by Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.84, Penguin

• Be not the slave of your own past.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Past, Slave, Plunge

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Richard Lee Grossman (2005). “A Year with Emerson: A Daybook”, p.106, David R. Godine Publisher

• The moral equalizes all; enriches, empowers all. It is the coin which buys all, and which all find in their pocket. Under the whipof the driver, the slave shall feel his equality with saints and heroes.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hero, Empowering, Pockets

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2005). “The Selected Lectures of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.250, University of Georgia Press

• The spirit only can teach. Not any profane man, not any sensual, not any liar, not any slave can teach, but only he can give, whohas; he only can create, who is. The man on whom the soul descends, through whom the soul speaks, alone can teach. Courage, piety, love, wisdom, can teach; and every man can open his door to these angels, and they shall bring him the gift of tongues. But the man who aims to speak as books enable, as synods use, as the fashion guides, and as interest commands, babbles. Let him hush.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Education, Fashion, Liars

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.1123, Delphi Classics

• Meek young men grow up in colleges and believe it is their duty to accept the views which books have given, and grow up slaves.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Education, Growing Up, Book

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edward Waldo Emerson, Waldo Emerson Forbes (1910). “Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1820-1872 [1876] Ed”

• Give the slave the least elevation of religious sentiment, and he is not slave: you are the slave: he not only in his humility feels his superiority, feels that much deplored condition of his to be a fading trifle, but he makes you feel it too. He is the master.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Religious, Humility, Giving

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1866). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson: Comprising His Essays, Lectures, Poems, and Orations”, p.258

• Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action. What they have done commits and enforces them to do the same again. The first act, which was to be an experiment, becomes a sacrament.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Done, Firsts

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.749, Library of America

• Poverty demoralizes. A man in debt is so far a slave; and Wall-street thinks it easy for a millionaire to be a man of his word, aman of honor, but, that, in failing circumstances, no man can be relied on to keep his integrity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Wall, Integrity, Men

  "Wealth". Book by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1860.

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