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The lessons of great men and women are lost unless they reinforce upon our minds the highest demands which we make upon ourselves they are lost unless they drive our sluggish wills forward in the direction of their highest ideas.

Jane Addams

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Jane Addams
Age: 74 †
Born: 1860
Born: September 6
Died: 1935
Died: June 21
Autobiographer
Feminist
Human Rights Activist
Journalist
Peace Activist
Philosopher
Political Theorist
Social Critic
Social Reformer
Laura Jane Addams
Dzheyn Edems
Ideas
Forward
Reinforce
Great
Demand
Sluggish
Mind
Highest
Wills
Make
Unless
Demands
Men
Wisdom
Drive
Upon
Direction
Lost
Minds
Women
Lessons

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This dream that men shall cease to waste strength in competition and shall come to pool their powers of production is coming to pass all over the earth.
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You do not know what life means when all the difficulties are removed!
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We are thus brought to a conception of Democracy not merely as a sentiment which desires the well-being of all men, nor yet as a creed which believes in the essential dignity and equality of all men, but as that which affords a rule of living as well as a test of faith.
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Must be grounded in a philosophy whose foundation is on the solidarity of the human race, a philosophy which will not waver when the race happens to be represented by a drunken woman or an idiot boy.
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With all the efforts made by modern society to nurture and educate the young, how stupid it is to permit the mothers of young children to spend themselves in the coarser work of the world!
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In the unceasing ebb and flow of justice and oppression we must all dig channels as best we may, that at the propitious moment somewhat of the swelling tide may be conducted to the barren places of life.
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The task of youth is not only its own salvation but the salvation of those against whom it rebels, but in that case there must be something vital to rebel against and if the elderly stiffly refuse to put up a vigorous front of their own, it leaves the entire situation in a mist.
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Much of the insensibility and hardness of the world is due to the lack of imagination which prevents a realization of the experiences of other people.
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The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.
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We are learning that a standard of social ethics is not attained by travelling a sequestered byway, but by mixing on the thronged and common road where all must turn out for one another, and at least see the size of one another's burdens.
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A city is in many respects a great business corporation, but in other respects it is enlarged housekeeping. ... may we not say that city housekeeping has failed partly because women, the traditional housekeepers, have not been consulted as to its multiform activities?
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In a thousand voices singing the Hallelujah Chorus in Handel's Messiah, it is possible to distinguish the leading voices, but the differences of training and cultivation between them and the voices in the chorus, are lost in the unity of purpose and in the fact that they are all human voices lifted by a high motive.
Jane Addams
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Unless our conception of patriotism is progressive, it cannot hope to embody the real affection and the real interest of the nation.
Jane Addams
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Keep friends close but keep enemies closer.
Jane Addams
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Social advance depends as much upon the process through which it is secured as upon the result itself.
Jane Addams
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What after all, has maintained the human race on this old globe despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not faith in new possibilities, and courage to advocate them?
Jane Addams
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The worth of every conviction consists precisely in the steadfastness with which it is held.
Jane Addams
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It is as easy for most of us to keep from stealing our dinners as it is to digest them, and there is quite as much voluntary morality involved in one process as the other.
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Intellectual life requires for its expansion and manifestation the influences and assimilation of the interests and affections of others.
Jane Addams
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Hundreds of poor laboring men and women are being thrown into jails and police stations because of their political beliefs. In fact, an attempt is being made to deport an entire political party.
Jane Addams