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

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

About Ralph Waldo Emerson

Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, minister, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society and...

More quotations from Ralph Waldo Emerson

What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

action communication speech

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

philosophy consistency hypocrisy

We estimate the wisdom of nations by seeing what they did with their surplus capital.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

politics wisdom nations money capital

The charm which Henry [Thoreau] uses for bird and frog and mink is patience. They will not come to him, or show him aright, until he becomes a log among logs, sitting still for hours in the same place; then they come around him and to him, and show themselves at home.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

patience home charm

I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

knowledge quotations

More quotations tagged with “slavery”

Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.

—George Gurdjieff

freedom self-knowledge slavery self-governance

Who covets more is evermore a slave.

—Robert Herrick

freedom slavery jealousy covetousness

I learned to believe in freedom, to glow when the word democracy was used, and to practice slavery from morning to night. I learned it the way all of my Southern people learn it: by closing door after door until one's mind and heart and conscience are blocked off from each other and from reality.

—Lillian Smith

reality freedom democracy conscience slavery

Slaves sing most when they are most unhappy. The songs of the slave represent the sorrows of his heart, and he is relieved by them, only as an aching heart is relieved by its tears.

—Frederick Douglass

history heart sorrow tears unhappiness slavery songs relief

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence and back into bondage.

—Fraser Tyler

history apathy progress nations world faith liberty courage wealth slavery abundance

History

1 Jul 2014 Added