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.
No serious sociologist any longer believes that the voice of the people expresses any divine or specially wise and lofty idea. The voice of the people expresses the mind of the people, and that mind is made up for it by the group leaders in whom it believes and by those persons who understand the manipulation of public opinion. It is composed of inherited prejudices and symbols and clichés and verbal formulas supplied to them by the leaders.
It might be a very human thing across the board, but we, in America, love a story - we need a story to get involved in. But then everything becomes more about how the story protects a certain perception as we pick sides.
Feminine virtue is nothing but a convenient masculine invention.
If you're in favour of any policy - reform, revolution, stability, regression, whatever - if you're at least minimally moral, it's because you think it's somehow good for people. And good for people means conforming to their fundamental nature.
It is natural for the mind to believe and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.
But once a dead God, always a dead God, even resurrected. The Son must have the taste of death forever in his mouth. The Trinity must be tainted by it; there must be a certain stench at the right hand of God the Father. The horror must be real. Why would God wish that upon Himself? Why not leave death to mortals? Why make dirty what is beautiful, spoil what is perfect? -- Love. That was his answer.
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