WIST Quotations

Webster, Daniel -- Speech (1820-12-22), “First Settlement of New England,” Plymouth, Massachusetts

Dave — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 17:32:34 +0000

At the moment when God in his mercy has blessed the Christian world with a universal peace, there is reason to fear, that, to the disgrace of the Christian name and character, new efforts are making for the extension of this [slave] trade by subjects and citizens of Christian states, in whose hearts there dwell no sentiments of humanity or of justice, and over whom neither the fear of God nor the fear of man exercises a control. In the sight of our law, the African slave-trader is a pirate and a felon; and in the sight of Heaven, an offender beyond the ordinary depth of human guilt.

Daniel Webster (1782-1852) American statesman, lawyer, orator
Speech (1820-12-22), “First Settlement of New England,” Plymouth, Massachusetts
(Source)

On the bicentennial of the Pilgrims' landing in the New World.

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 3, ch. 14 / sec. 35 (2.14/3.35.3) (44-12-20 BC) [tr. Yonge (1903)]

Dave — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 15:17:51 +0000

And if now (but may the immortal gods avert the omen!) that worst of fates shall befall the republic, then, as brave gladiators take care to perish with honor, let us too, who are the chief men of all countries and nations, take care to fall with dignity rather than to live as slaves with ignominy.

[Quodsi iam, quod di omen avertant! fatum extremum rei publicae venit, quod gladiatores nobiles faciunt, ut honeste decumbant, faciamus nos principes orbis terrarum gentiumque omnium, ut cum dignitate potius cadamus quam cum ignominia serviamus.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Philippics [Philippicae; Antonian Orations], No. 3, ch. 14 / sec. 35 (2.14/3.35.3) (44-12-20 BC) [tr. Yonge (1903)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Other translations:

But if already -- may the Gods avert the omen! -- the State has been brought to its latest pass, let us, the leaders of the world and of all nations, do what stout gladiators do to die with honour, let us fall with dignity rather than serve with ignominy. [tr. Ker (Loeb) (1926)]

If -- may the Gods avert the omen! -- the final episode in the history of the Res publica has arrived, let us behave like champion gladiators: they meet death honorably; let us, who stand foremost in the world and all nations, see to it that we fall with dignity rather than serve with ignominy.
[tr. Manuwald (2007)]

But if, may the Gods avert the omen, final fate has come to the State, let us, leaders of the world and all nations, do what noble gladiators do to die with dignity: let us fall on our sword rather than serve with ignominy.
[tr. Wiseman]

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Speech (1876-07-04), “Centennial Oration [The Declaration of Independence],” Peoria, Illinois

Dave — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 20:01:24 +0000

It is not possible for the human imagination to conceive of the horrors of slavery. It has left no possible crime uncommitted, no possible cruelty unperpetrated. It has been practiced and defended by all nations in some form. It has been upheld by all religions. It has been defended by nearly every pulpit. From the profits derived from the slave trade churches have been built, cathedrals reared and priests paid. Slavery has been blessed by bishop, by cardinal, and by pope. It has received the sanction of statesmen, of kings, and of queens. It has been defended by the throne, the pulpit and the bench. Monarchs have shared in the profits. Clergymen have taken their part of the spoils, reciting passages of Scripture in its defence at the same time, and judges have taken their portion in the name of equity and law.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Speech (1876-07-04), “Centennial Oration [The Declaration of Independence],” Peoria, Illinois
(Source)

Herbert, George -- Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 784 (1640 ed.)

Dave — Fri, 27 Sep 2024 14:15:05 +0000

Hee that marries for wealth sells his liberty.

George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 784 (1640 ed.)
(Source)

Lincoln, Abraham -- Note (1854-07-01?), On Slavery (fragment)

Dave — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 23:46:41 +0000

If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B. — why may not B. snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A?
You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own.
You do not mean color exactly? — You mean the whites are intellectually the superior of blacks, and, therefore, have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own.
But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest, you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Note (1854-07-01?), On Slavery (fragment)
(Source)

The note itself is not dated. The fragment is included in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. 2 (1953) [ed. Roy P. Basler]. The printed version of the book gives "July 1, 1854?" as the date, as being the date assigned by Nicolay and Hay; the U. of Michigan online version of that work gives "April 1, 1854?" with no explaination. The editors of the Collected Works do note that it likely was written 1858-1859. The Abraham Lincoln Digital Library version suggests the note post-dates the Kansas-Nebraska Act (May 1854), which brought Lincoln back into politics, campaigning for a Whig congressional candidate in the Fall of 1854.

Baldwin, James -- “Notes for a Hypothetical Novel,” speech, San Francisco College (22 Oct 1960)

Dave — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 21:32:29 +0000

Let me point out to you that freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be. One hasn’t got to have an enormous military in order to be unfree when it’s simpler to be asleep, when it’s simpler to be apathetic, when it’s simpler, in fact, not to want to be free, to think that something else is more important.

James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
“Notes for a Hypothetical Novel,” speech, San Francisco College (22 Oct 1960)
(Source)

Later published in Nobody Knows My Name (1961).

Camus, Albert -- Notebooks: 1942-1951, Notebook 4, Jan 1942 – Sep 1945 [tr. O’Brien/Thody (1963)

Dave — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 13:34:22 +0000

Poor and free rather than rich and enslaved. Of course, men want to be both rich and free, and this is what leads them at times to be poor and enslaved.

[Pauvre et libre plutôt que riche et asservi. Bien entendu les hommes veulent être et riches et libres et c’est ce qui les conduit quelquefois à être pauvres et esclaves.]

Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
Notebooks: 1942-1951, Notebook 4, Jan 1942 – Sep 1945 [tr. O’Brien/Thody (1963)
(Source)

Lincoln, Abraham -- Letter (1864-04-04) to Albert G. Hodges

Dave — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 12:12:52 +0000

I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Letter (1864-04-04) to Albert G. Hodges
(Source)

Recounting what he had said the previous day at the White House to newspaper publisher Hodges, Governor Thomas Bramlette, and US Senator Archibald Dixon, all of Kentucky.

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1810-01-19) to William Baldwin (unsent)

Dave — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:31:50 +0000

But a short time elapsed after the death of the great reformer of the Jewish religion before his principles were departed from by those who professed to be his special servants, & perverted into an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their oppressors in church & state: that the purest system of morals ever before preached to man has been adulterated & sophisticated, by artificial constructions, into a mere contrivance to filch wealth & power to themselves, that rational men not being able to swallow their impious heresies, in order to force them down their throats, they raise the hue & cry of infidelity, while themselves are the greatest obstacles to the advancement of the real doctrines of Jesus, and do in fact constitute the real Anti-Christ.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1810-01-19) to William Baldwin (unsent)
(Source)

Lincoln, Abraham -- Fragment (1858-08-01?), “Definition of Democracy”

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Fragment (1858-08-01?), “Definition of Democracy”
(Source)

The title of this writing fragment, in Lincoln's hand, is notional. It is sometimes referred to as "On Slavery and Democracy." The date is also conjectural, and the manuscript is not connected with any known speech or occasion. The scrap of paper this solitary paragraph is on was given to Mary Todd Lincoln by her friend, Myra Bradwell on Mary's release from the asylum. It was unsigned, but a signature clipped from another document was pasted below the text.