Theodore Parker quotes

Theodore Parker was an American transcendentalist, reforming minister, and influential abolitionist. His sermons and speeches inspired many in the fight against slavery and for social justice. He was a key figure in shaping progressive religious and political thought in 19th-century America. Here are 46 of his quotes:

Remorse is the pain of sin. (Theodore Parker)
All men desire to be immortal. View quote
Theodore Parker
It is very sad for a man to make himself servant to a single thing; his manhood all taken out of him by the hydraulic pressure of excessive business. View quote
Theodore Parker
Let others laugh when you sacrifice desire to duty, if they will. You have time and eternity to rejoice in. View quote
Theodore Parker
Truth never yet fell dead in the streets; it has such affinity with the soul of man, the seed however broadcast will catch somewhere and produce its hundredfold. View quote
Theodore Parker
The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most. View quote
Theodore Parker
Outward judgment often fails, inward judgment never. View quote
Theodore Parker
Truth stood on one side and Ease on the other; it has often been so. View quote
Theodore Parker
Every rose is an autograph from the hand of the Almighty God. View quote
Theodore Parker
Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect. View quote
Theodore Parker
Self-denial is indispensable to a strong character, and the highest kind comes from a religious stock. (Theodore Parker)
Politics is the science of urgencies. View quote
Theodore Parker
Wealth and want equally harden the human heart. View quote
Theodore Parker
Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect. Be true to your own mind and conscience, your heart and your soul. So only can you be true to God. View quote
Theodore Parker
Look at the facts of the world. You see a continual and progressive triumph of the right. I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice. View quote
Theodore Parker
In America, the Democratic Party thinks slavery is 'indispensable to good government', and is 'the normal condition of one seventh part of the people. View quote
Theodore Parker
Democracy means not "I am as good as you are" but "You are as good as I am.". View quote
Theodore Parker
Man never falls so low, that he can see nothing higher than himself. View quote
Theodore Parker
This idea demands, as the proximate organization thereof, a democracy, that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government after the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; for shortness' sake, I will call it the idea of Freedom. View quote
Theodore Parker
Magnificent promises are always to be suspected. View quote
Theodore Parker
The people are not satisfied with any form of government, or statute law, until it comes up to their sense of justice; so every progressive State revises its statutes from time to time, and at each revision comes nearer to the absolute right which human nature demands. (Theodore Parker)
Variant : This is what I call the American idea of freedom - a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice - the unchanging law of God. View quote
Theodore Parker
Observation and reflection only give us the actual of morals; conscience, by gradual and successive intuition, presents us the ideal of morals. View quote
Theodore Parker
Justice is moral temperance in the world of men. It keeps just relations between men; one man, however little, must not be sacrificed to another, however great, to a majority, or to all men. View quote
Theodore Parker
Justice is the constitution or fundamental law of the moral universe, the law of right, a rule of conduct for man in all his moral relations. View quote
Theodore Parker

Theodore Parker

Occupation: American Theologian
Born: August 24, 1810
Died: May 10, 1860
Quotes count: 46
Wikipedia: Theodore Parker

Related authors

Ralph Waldo Emerson - thumbnail
Ralph Waldo Emerson  1647 
American Philosopher
Henry David Thoreau - thumbnail
Henry David Thoreau  857 
American Essayist
Martin Luther King Jr. - thumbnail
Martin Luther King Jr.  778 
American Leader
William Lloyd Garrison - thumbnail
William Lloyd Garrison  36 
American Journalist
Abraham Lincoln - thumbnail
Abraham Lincoln  829 
American President
Margaret Fuller - thumbnail
Margaret Fuller  155 
American Writer
Amos Bronson Alcott  44 
American Teacher
George Ripley - thumbnail
George Ripley  8 
American Activist
William Ellery Channing - thumbnail
William Ellery Channing  101 
American Writer
Wendell Phillips - thumbnail
Wendell Phillips  58 
American Abolitionist