We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the moral responsibility of those in power to recognize the humanity of the oppressed rather than perpetuating their suffering.
Lydia M. Child's quote comments on the morally dubious nature of societal structures that allow the strong to dominate the weak. It emphasizes that once people are brought down, there is a tendency for those in power to feel justified in maintaining that dominance indefinitely, highlighting the ethical implications of power dynamics and the need for compassion and justice.
In practice
In a discussion on social justice, one might quote this to highlight the need for accountability among those in power.
Nature made us individuals, as she did the flowers and the pebbles; but we are afraid to be peculiar, and so our society resembles a bag of marbles, or a string of mold candles. Why should we all dress after the same fashion? The frost never paints my windows twice alike.
Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.
Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it; for such do always see that every cloud is an angel's face.
With Othello, Shakespeare posed this problem of a black man in a white society in the role that he's playing. And Shakespeare gave Othello such dignity - he came not from - as he said - not from hate but from honor, from a sense of his own human dignity. And to me, to my mind, there could be no greater character played.
Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you'll never, never have to worry about grown up things again.
What we do not make conscious emerges later as fate.
Evil doesnβt have to be an overt act; it can be merely the absence of good. If you have the ability, the resources, and the opportunity to do good and you do nothing, that can be evil.
Too many sit at the banquet table of the gospel of Jesus Christ and merely nibble at the feast placed before them. They go through the motions - attending their meetings perhaps, glancing at scriptures, repeating familiar prayers - but their hearts are far away.
Every one must act according to the dictates of his own reason, and mine tells me that civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents.
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