Slavery is but half abolished, emancipation is but half completed, while millions of freeman with votes in their hands are left without education.
Robert Charles WinthropRead
The noblest contribution which any man can make for the benefit of posterity, is that of character. The richest bequest which any man can leave to the youth of his native land, is that of a shining, spotless example.
Interpretation
Character is the most valuable legacy one can leave for future generations.
This quote emphasizes the idea that the greatest gift a person can offer to future generations is his or her character. It implies that a life lived with integrity, virtue, and exemplary behavior serves as an inspiration and guiding example for the youth, influencing them to strive for similar values and conduct in their own lives.
In practice
In a graduation speech, a speaker might use this quote to stress the importance of character over material wealth.
Slavery is but half abolished, emancipation is but half completed, while millions of freeman with votes in their hands are left without education.
We have the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast. But in the name of freedom, people have done a lot of damage. I think we have to build a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast in order to counterbalance. Because liberty without responsibility is not true liberty. We are not free to destroy.
The constitution of Soviet Russia must insure equal rights for all citizens regardless of sex, creed, race, or nationality.
But there are times when the little cloud spreads, until it obscures the sky. And those times I look around at my fellow men and I am reminded of some likeness of the beast-people, and I feel as though the animal is surging up in them. And I know they are neither wholly animal nor holy man, but an unstable combination of both.
Religious institutions that use government power in support of themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths, or of no faith, undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of an established religion tends to make the clergy unresponsive to their own people, and leads to corruption within religion itself. Erecting the 'wall of separation between church and state,' therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.
It is only when human beings see themselves simply as human beings, no longer as gods, that they are in a position to perceive the wholly other nature of God.
Tilting his head back he slowly released an enormous quantity of smoke from his mouth and drew it up through his nostrils. He continued to smoke in this "French-inhale" style. Very probably, it was not part of the sofa vaudeville of a showoff but, rather, the private, exposed achievement of a young man who, at one time or another, might have tried shaving himself left-handed.
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