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.
Philosophy, most broadly viewed, is the critical survey of existence from the standpoint of value.
Liberty finds no refuge in a jurisprudence of doubt.
Civilization has ceased to be that delicate flower which was preserved and painstakingly cultivated in one or two sheltered areas of a soil rich in wild species ... Mankind has opted for monoculture; it is in the process of creating a mass civilization, as beetroot is grown in the mass. Henceforth, man's daily bill of fare will consist only of this one item.
The Way is eternal. Until your last day, you are free from peril.
The truth is that the whole life of the worker is simply a continuous and dismaying succession of terms of serfdom - voluntary from the juridical point of view but compulsory in the economic sense - broken up by momentarily brief interludes of freedom accompanied by starvation; in other words, it is real slavery.
...when food is shared in a fair way, with solidarity, when no one is deprived, every community can meet the needs of the poorest. Human ecology and environmental ecology walk together.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.