Best 90 quotes of Theodore Parker on MyQuotes

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.

A happy wedlock is a long falling in love.

All men desire to be immortal.

All men need something to poetize and idealize their life a little-something which they value for more than its use, and which is a symbol of their emancipation from the mere materialism and drudgery of daily life.

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.

[America is] a rebellious nation. Our whole history is treason; our blood was attained before we were born; our creeds were infidelity to the mother church; our constitution treason to our fatherland.

Applying good sense to religion and religion to life. This is the field in which I design to labor

As society advances the standard of poverty rises.

Be not familiar with the idea of wrong, for sin in fancy mothers many an ugly fact.

Cities have always been the fireplaces of civilization, whence light and heat radiated out into the dark.

Democracy is direct self-government over all the people, for all the people, by all the people.

Democracy means not "I am as good as you are" but "You are as good as I am.".

Did the mass of men know the actual selfishness and injustice of their rulers, not a government would stand a year. - The world would foment with revolution.

Disappointment is often the salt of life.

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.

Every rose is an autograph from the hand of the Almighty God on this world about us. He has inscribed His thoughts in these marvelous hieroglyphics which sense and science have been these many thousand years seeking to understand.

First there is the democratic idea: that all men are endowed by their creator with certain natural rights; that these rights are alienable only by the possessor thereof; that they are equal in men; that government is to organize these natural, unalienable and equal rights into institutions designed for the good of the governed, and therefore government is to be of all the people, by all the people, and for all the people. Here government is development, not exploitation.

For a thousand years no king in Christendom has shown such greatness or given so high a type of manly virtue.

Greatness is its own torment.

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

Gratitude is a nice touch of beauty added last of all to the countenance. Giving a classic beauty, an angelic loveliness, to the character.

Great success is a great temptation.

He prays best who, not asking God to do man's work, prays penitence, prays resolutions, and then prays deeds--thus supplicating with heart and head and hands.

I am conscious of eternal life.

Humanity is the sin of God

Humanity is the Son of God.

I ask no risen dust to teach me immortality; I am conscious of eternal life.

I believe in the admission of women to the full rights of citizenship and share in government, on the express grounds that few women keep house so badly or with such wastefulness as chancellors of the exchequer keep the state.

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.

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.

I look through the grave into heaven.

In all the world there is nothing so remarkable as a great man, nothing so rare, nothing which so well repays study.

Intellect is stronger than cannon.

It is vain to trust in wrong; as much of evil, so much of loss, is the formula of human history.

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.

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.

Justice is the idea of God, the ideal of man, the rule of conduct writ in the nature of mankind.

Let others laugh when you sacrifice desire to duty, if they will. You have time and eternity to rejoice in.

Let us do our duty in our shop or our kitchen, in the market, the street, the office, the school, the home, just as faithfully as if we stood in the front rank of some great battle, and knew that victory for mankind depended on our bravery, strength, and skill. When we do that, the humblest of us will be serving in that great army which achieves the welfare of the world.

Love is the piety of the affections.

Love of truth will bless the lover all his days; yet when he brings her home, his fair-faced bride, she comes empty-handed to his door, herself her only dower.

Magnificent promises are always to be suspected.

Man is the jewel of God, who has created this material world to keep his treasure in.

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.

Manly natural religion - it is not joining the Church; it is not to believe in a creed, Hebrew, Protestant, Catholic, Trinitarian, Unitarian, Nothingarian. It is not to keep Sunday idle; to attend meetings; to be wet with water; to read the Bible; to offer prayers in words; to take bread and wine in the meeting house; love a scape-goat Jesus, or any other theological clap-trap.

Man never falls so low that he can see nothing higher than himself.

Nature is God's Old Testament.

Nature is man's religious book, with lessons for every day.

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.

Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect.