Quote #118

I speak for the slave when I say that I prefer the philanthropy of Captain Brown to that philanthropy which neither shoots me nor liberates me.

More from Henry David Thoreau

  1. It was his peculiar doctrine that a man has a perfect right to interfere by force with the slaveholder, in order to rescue the slave. I agr…
  2. I do not wish to kill nor to be killed, but I can foresee circumstances in which both these things would be by me unavoidable. We preserve …
  3. I hear many condemn these men because they were so few. When were the good and the brave ever in a majority? Would you have had him wait ti…
  4. I am here to plead his cause with you. I plead not for his life, but for his character - his immortal life; and so it becomes your cause wh…
  5. He would have left a Greek accent slanting the wrong way, and righted up a falling man.
  6. In wildness is the preservation of the world.
  7. I do not wish to force my thoughts upon you, but I feel forced myself. Little as I know of Captain Brown, I would fain do my part to correc…
  8. Life consists with wildness. The most alive is the wildest. Not yet subdued to man, its presence refreshes him.

All Henry David Thoreau quotes