The forgotten man... He works, he votes, generally he prays, but his chief business in life is to pay.
William Graham SumnerRead
If I want to be free from any other man's dictation, I must understand that I can have no other man under my control.
Interpretation
True freedom requires mutual respect and the acknowledgment of autonomy in relationships.
This quote emphasizes the vital concept of autonomy and mutual respect in interpersonal relationships. To be free from domination or control by others, one must also forgo the desire to control or dictate othersβ lives. It speaks to the balance required for genuine freedom where both parties acknowledge each other's independence.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about personal freedoms in a political context.
The forgotten man... He works, he votes, generally he prays, but his chief business in life is to pay.
It is the tendency of the social burdens to crush out the middle class, and to force society into an organization of only two classes, one at each social extreme.
We shall find that every effort to realize equality necessitates a sacrifice of liberty.
The Forgotten Man is delving away in patient industry, supporting his family, paying his taxes, casting his vote, supporting the church and the school, reading his newspaper, and cheering for the politician of his admiration, but he is the only one for whom there is no provision in the great scramble and the big divide. Such is the Forgotten Man. He works, he votes, generally he prays β but he always pays β yes, above all, he pays.
The men who start out with the notion that the world owes them a living generally find that the world pays its 'debt' in the penitentiary or the poor house.
We throw all our attention on the utterly idle question whether A has done as well as B, when the only question is whether A has done as well as he could.
You're not an African because you're born in Africa. You're an African because Africa is born in you. It's in your genes.... your DNA....your entire biological make up. Whether you like it or not, that's the way it is. However, if you were to embrace this truth with open arms....my, my, my....what a wonderful thing.
All things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation to all things
I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn't just that I don't believe in God and, naturally, I hope that I'm right in my belief. It's that I hope there is no God! I don't want there to be a God; I don't want the universe to be like that.
The tumalt and shouting dies, The captains and the kings depart. Still stands thine ancient sacrifice, An humble and a contrite heat. Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet, Lest we forget, lest we forget.
Philosophy when superficially studied, excites doubt, when thoroughly explored, it dispels it.
Could it think, the heart would stop beating.
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