Is it not a grotesque civilization which sends missionaries across the sea to save the souls of the heathen, and yet permits conditions at home that debauch the children at our very doors?
Interpretation
This quote critiques the hypocrisy of a society that is eager to assist others abroad while neglecting its own issues.
Edwin Markham's quote highlights the absurdity of a civilization that prioritizes sending missionaries to 'save' distant populations while turning a blind eye to the moral and social decay occurring within its own borders, particularly as it affects vulnerable children. It urges reflection on the values of society and questions the sincerity of its philanthropic efforts when local problems remain unaddressed.
In practice
In a speech about community service, one might introduce this quote to discuss the importance of addressing local social issues.
Greed and Gain, grim guardians of the great god Mammon, continually cry in the ears of the poor, 'Give us your little ones!' And forever do the poor push out their little ones at the imperious ukase, feeding the children to a blind Hunger that is never filled.
Sorrows come to stretch out places in the heart for joy.
There is a destiny which makes us brothers; none goes his way alone. All that we send into the lives of others comes back into our own.
The crest and crowning of all good, life's final star, is Brotherhood.
He drew a circle that shut me out- Heretic , rebel, a thing to flout. But love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle and took him In ! From the poem " Outwitted
The sequoias belong to the silences of the milleniums. Many of them have seen a hundred human generations rise, give off their little clamors and perish. They seem indeed to be forms of immortality standing here amoing the transitory shapes of time.
There lies at the back of every creed something terrible and hard for which the worshipper may one day be required to suffer.
The last thing to collapse is the surface.
Sin contains its own judgement and punishment.
The man who spends his time choosing one resort after another in a hunt for peace and quiet will in every place he visits find something to prevent him from relaxing.
If you give people nothingness, they can ponder what can be achieved from that nothingness.
Philosophy consists very largely of one philosopher arguing that all others are jackasses. He usually proves it, and I should add that he also usually proves that he is one himself.
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