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Genius is the father of a heavenly line, but the mortal mother, that is industry.

Theodore Parker

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Theodore Parker
Age: 49 †
Born: 1810
Born: August 24
Died: 1860
Died: May 10
Theologian
Lexington
Massachusetts
Mother
Mortal
Mortals
Heavenly
Line
Genius
Industry
Lines
Father

More quotes by Theodore Parker

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The miraculous revelation of the Old Testament and the New, the miracles of famous men, Jews, Gentiles, or Christians, — then Franklin had no religion at all and it would be an insult to say that he believed in the popular theology of his time, or of ours, for I find not a line from his pen indicating any such belief.
Theodore Parker
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Mankind never loses any good thing, physical, intellectual, or moral, till it finds a better, and then the loss is a gain. No steps backward is the rule of human history. What is gained by one man is invested in all men, and is a permanent investment for all time.
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Such a large sweet fruit is a complete marriage, that it needs a very long summer to ripen in and then a long winter to mellow and season it.
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Want and wealth equally harden the human heart, as frost and fire are both alien to the human flesh. Famine and gluttony alike drive away nature from the heart of man.
Theodore Parker
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Great success is a great temptation.
Theodore Parker
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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.
Theodore Parker
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There never was a great truth but it was reverenced never a great institution, nor a great man, that did not, sooner or later, receive the reverence of mankind.
Theodore Parker
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Man is the highest product of his own history. The discoverer finds nothing so grand or tall as himself, nothing so valuable to him. The greatest star is at the small end, of the telescope,--the star that is looking, not looked after nor looked at.
Theodore Parker
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Wit has its place in debate in controversy it is a legitimate weapon, offensive and defensive.
Theodore Parker
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All the spaces between my mind and the mind of God are full of truths waiting to be crystallized into laws for the government of the masses.
Theodore Parker
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It takes a Newton to forge a Newton. What man could have fabricated a Jesus? None but a Jesus.
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Magnificent promises are always to be suspected.
Theodore Parker
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What succeeds we keep, and it becomes the habit of mankind.
Theodore Parker
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A democracy,- that is 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 for shortness' sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.
Theodore Parker
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It seems strange that a butterfly's wing should be woven up so thin and gauzy in the monstrous loom of nature, and be so delicately tipped with fire from such a gross hand, and rainbowed all over in such a storm of thunderous elements. The marvel is that such great forces do such nice work.
Theodore Parker
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The coat of the buffalo never pinches under the arm, never puckers at the shoulders it is always the same, yet never old fashioned nor out of date.
Theodore Parker
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The great man is to be the servant of mankind, not they of him.
Theodore Parker
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There is no intercessor, angel, mediator, between man and God for man can speak and God hear, each for himself. He requires no advocates to plead for men.
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Every man has at times in his mind the Ideal of what he should be, but is not. This ideal may be high and complete, or it may be quite low and insufficient yet in all men, that really seek to improve, it is better than the actual character... Man never falls so low, that he can see nothing higher than himself.
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The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.
Theodore Parker