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Greatness is its own torment.

Theodore Parker

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Theodore Parker
Age: 49 †
Born: 1810
Born: August 24
Died: 1860
Died: May 10
Theologian
Lexington
Massachusetts
Torment
Greatness

More quotes by 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 books which help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is by easy reading every man that tries it finds it so. But a great book that comes from a great thinker, — it is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth, with beauty too.
Theodore Parker
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What a joy is there in a good book, writ by some great master of thought, who breaks into beauty as in summer the meadow into grass and dandelions and violets, with geraniums and manifold sweetness.
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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The most useful is the greatest.
Theodore Parker
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Man is the jewel of God, who has created this material world to keep his treasure in.
Theodore Parker
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The books that help you the most are those which make you think the most.
Theodore Parker
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The miser, starving his brother's body, starves also his own soul, and at death shall creep out of his great estate of injustice, poor and naked and miserable
Theodore Parker
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Did not Jesus say, resist not evil — with evil? Is not war the worst form of that evil.
Theodore Parker
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As society advances the standard of poverty rises.
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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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.
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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Politics is the science of urgencies.
Theodore Parker
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I do not pretend to understand the moral universe the arc is a long one. . . . But from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.
Theodore Parker
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Democracy is direct self-government over all the people, for all the people, by all the people.
Theodore Parker
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That which is called liberality is frequently nothing more than the vanity of giving.
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.
Theodore Parker
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Self-denial is indispensable to a strong character, and the highest kind comes from a religious stock.
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.
Theodore Parker